|n ^jem0riam. 



^jeffjet:60tt Mvcms. 



iieA fitctmhtv 6ttt, 1889. 



in Mcmoviam* 



EFFERSON DAVIS. 



A TRIBUTE OF RESPECT OFFERED BY THE 



CITIZENS OF CHARLESTON, S. C. 



a )^ » * With honor lay him iu his grave, 
And thereby shall increase of honor come 
Unto their arms who vanquished one so wise, 
So valiant, so renowned."— //e/ty^ Taylor. 



CHARLESTON, S. C. 
Walker, Evans & Cogswell Co., Publishers, 

3 and 5 Broad and 117 East Bay Sts. 
1890. 



t:467 






PRELIMINARY MEETINGS. 



On the morning of Friday, December 6, 1889, the news of 
the death of the Hon. Jefferson Davis was received in 
Charleston, and the Maj'or of the city immediately issued 
the following proclamation : 



City of Charleston 
Executive Departmen 



NT. j 



To the Citizens of Charleston : It is my painful duty to 
announce to you the deatli of our great fellow-citizen, Jeffer- 
son Davis, Ex-President of the Southern Confederacy. The 
sad intelligence of his passing away has come with true sor- 
row to the heart of a people in whose midst he spent his life 
to whose service, as soldier, statesman and chieftain, he gave 
all that was in life to give. Closely identified with the 
brightest hopes and bitterest trials of the South, as a repre- 
sentative of her cause, he was ever faithful and steadfast, 
even intnartyrdom, and now in full years, in the reverence 
and affection of the people of the South, he has passed away 
in honor, even as in honor long since passed away forever, 
the cause he led. 

It becomes us to join with his and our Southern comrades 
to pay our affectionate tribute to the greatness of his mind 
and heart, his high character, his devotion and sacrifice for 
principle, his unsullied and pure life, that will ever be cher- 
ished in the memory of the South, and by all good and true 
men everywhere. 

His funeral .services are announced to be held in the city 
of New Orleans on Wednesday next, the 11th instant, and 
on the same day there will be held a memorial service in 
this city. This day of mourning will be held in Charleston, 
and all the offices of the municipality will be closed. The 



flag of the city will be at half-mast and the City Hall will 
be draped in mourning for thirty days. 

I request that all places of business be closed in observ- 
ance of the day, and I earnestly invite my fellow-citizens to 
attend the memorial services to be held on that day. 

Given under my hand and the seal of the Cit} of Charles- 
ton this (3th day of December, A. D., 1889. 

GEORGE D. BRYAN, Mayor, 

Attest: W. W. Simons, 

Clerk of City Council. 



MEETlXr; OF THE (TIV COUNCIL OF CHARLESTON 
December 10, 1889. 



The fifty seventh meeting of City Council was caHed this 
day at 7 P. M. 

Present, Hon. Geo. D. Bryan, Mayor; Aldermen Redding, 
Smyth, Roddy, Lilienthal, Cramer, O'Neill. Roach, John- 
son, Riley, Collins, Smith, Gadsden and Cade — 14. 

Alderman Smyth stated that before the minutes were 
read or any business transacted he desired to present the 
following Preamble and Resolutions: 

All over this broad Southland, which he so loved and 
for which he so suffered, hearts are bowed with grief, and 
eyes are moist with tears, as in subdued tones the sad news 
is told that Jefferson Davis is dead. 

As he lies to-night, cold and silent in death, we feel we 
cannot do too much to sliow our love and reverence for him 
who, in those days of trial and suffering when tlie Southern 
Confederacy agonized in l^lood, was our leader and our 
chieftain. 

True the "Conquered Banner" has been furled. But once 
more, with reverent hands and loving hearts, let us unfurl 
it, to wave for the last time over the grave of him who was 
the central figure of that period that gave it birth. 

Then let us lay it down, furled forever, as we bury in our 
dead President's grave all that was left us of our Confed- 
erate States. We will consecrate it to his memory, and that 
of Lee and Jackson and the host of gallant men who shed 
their hearts' blood in its defe.nce, and while it will no more 
unfold its "Stars and Bars" to the outward eye, yet deep in 
our inmost hearts, with undying affection, we will ever 
cherish with tender associations our dead President, our 
Conquered Banner, our Lost Cause and the immortal princi- 



6 

pies they represent. It is proper, therefore, that the City 
Council of Charleston, the battle-scarred city of that bloody 
war, should add their voice to the great dirge of sorrow that 
is sounding over the Sunny South, and also testify to their 
unchanging sympathy with those great principles for which 
Jefferson Davis lived and suffered, and to which he was so 
unalterably devoted during all these long years of retire- 
ment. 

Our Mayor has, in such eloquent words, expressed our 
sentiments that it only remains for us to endorse them. 
Therefore be it 

Resolved, That the City Council of Charleston hereby ex- 
press their deep grief at the death of President Jefferson 
Davis, and tender their heartfelt sympathy to his bereaved 
family. 

That they hereby endorse the words and suggestions of 
Maj^or George D. Bryan in his proclamation announcing 
this sad event. 

That they urge our citizens to close their places of busi- 
ness to-morrow and attend the solemn services to be held in 
this city. 

That as a token of respect to the memoTy of our honored 
dead, now awaiting the hour of burial, this Council do now 
adjourn until Monday evening, 16th instant, at 7 o'clock. 

Alderman Redding seconded the resolutions with feeling 
remarks, and moved that the same be adopted by a standing 
vote. 

The City Council then arose, and the Mayor declared the 
resolutions unanimously adopted, and the Council ad- 
journed. 

W- W. SIMONS, Clerk of Coundl. 



MEETING OF THE SURVIVORS' ASSOCIATION 
Of Charleston District. 



A special meeting of this Association was held on Friday 
evening, December 6th, at which the following resolutions 
were adopted : 

Resolved, That the president of this Association is 
hereb}^ requested to appoint a committee of six memberi, 
ot which committee the president shall act as chairman. 

Resolved, That said committee shall represent this As- 
sociation on a general committee of arrangements, of which 
the Mayor of Charleston be requested to act as chairman, to 
be composed of representatives of all organizations, civic 
and military, who desire to participate in the memorial 
meeting to be held on the day appointed for the funeral ser- 
vices of the late President of the Southern Confederacy. 

Resolved, That all organizations which intend to par- 
ticipate are invited to appoint their representative commit- 
tees, and to meet the committee of this Association at the 
City Hall on Saturday evening at 7.30 for the purpose of 
organizing and preparing for said memorial meeting. 

And the following notice appeared in the morning papers 
of Saturday, and a copy was also forwarded to the various 
civic and military organizations in the city : 

survivors' association, CHARLESTON DISTRICT. 

In accordance with the action of this Association, at a 
meeting held last evening, all organizations, civic and mili- 
tary, who desire to participate in the Memorial Meeting to 
be held on the day api)ointed for the funeral of the late 
President of tlie Southern Confederacy, are respectfully re- 
quested to send representative Committees to meet the Com- 
mittee of the Survivors' A.ssociation at the City Hall, this 
evening, at 7.30 o'clock, for the purpose of organizing and 
preparing tor said Memorial Meeting. 

ZIMMERMAN DAVIS, ^ 

C. I. WALKER, I 
RUDOLPH SIEGLING, L Committee. 
WM. AIKEN KELLY. f 

D. B.GILLILAND, | 
WM. E. STONEY, j 



xMEETING OF THE GENERAL COMMITTEE, 
December 7, 1889. 



At the appointed hour a large number of citizens, mem- 
bers of committees appointed from the various societies and 
associations, met in the Council Chamber in the City Hall. 
Col. Zimmerman Davis, the president of the Survivors' As- 
sociation, was called upon to preside, and, upon taking the 
chair, said : 

Gentlemen : When the news flashed over the wires yes- 
terday morning that Jefferson Davis, Ex-President of the 
Confederate States, had passed away, bnt one sentiment ani- 
mated the hearts of our people, and that was a feeling of 
tender and personal sympathy with the stricken wife and 
daughters, and of respect and reverence for the man who 
had been the representative of this people in the days of joy 
and prosperity, as well as in the days of adversity and 
gloom. Indeed, our pride in him as our leader, and our re- 
spect for him as soldier, patriot and statesman were subordi- 
nated to a feeling akin to veneration for the citizen who 
could bear himself so grandly in defeat and disaster. The 
tenderest emotions of our souls were stirred, as, looking back 
a quarter of a century, we thought of him in prison, in 
fetters, enduring shame and humiliation, in our stead — as 
our vicarious representative ; and our love for this grand old 
man found expression in the determination to do all possi- 
ble honor to his memory. 

To those who knew him as the President of the Southern 
Confederacy, and, therefore, the Commander-in-Chief of the 
army and navy of the Confederate States of America, to the 
survivors of that army and navy, who had fought for truth 
and right and principle, under his eye and under his orders, 
it seemed eminently fitting and proper that a grand memo- 
rial meeting of all our citizens should be called, at which 



the story of liis distinguished life, his fortitude and eourage, 
his patriotism, his devotion to principle, his purity of life, 
and his calm and peaceful end might be lovingly recounted 
at the hour when his remains are being tenderly laid away 
in the soil of Louisiana. 

With this object in view, the Survivors' Association of 
Charleston district have issued an invitation to all civic and 
military organizations in the city to send representative 
committees to meet here this evening for the purpose of or- 
ganizing and preparing for said mass meeting. I am grati- 
fied to see the enthusiasm with which you have responded 
to the invitation, and now declare this representative com- 
mittee ready for business. 

The Chairman then called for the committees of the 
various bodies which were invited to take part in the Memo- 
rial services. 

The following committees were reported as present : 

The Survivors' Association — Zimmerman Davis, chair- 
man ; C I Walker, Rudolph Siegling, Wm Aiken Kelly, 
D B Gilliland, Wm E Stoney. 

South Carolina Society — W H Prioleau, M D. the Rev 
John Johnson, Capt D G Wayne, Col John M Kinloch, Wm 
Ed Hayne, H M Tovey. 

The College of Charleston — Dr H E Shepherd, President; 
Dr Lewis R Gibbes, Dr G E Manigault. Prof A Sachtleben, 
Prof B Boaz, Prof H Wagener. 

The New England Society — Capt George H Walter, 
Thaddeus Street, Henry P Archer. 

Medical Society — P Gourdin DeSaussure, M D, R A Kin- 
loch. M D. 

Charleston Turnverein — A Matthies, F Richter, Wm 
Mappus. 

Charleston Exchange — Frank E Taylor, ^^' K Steedman, 
S-W Simons. 

W L I Veterans — J L Honour, C C Poppcnheim, F E 
Taylor, W M Muckenfuss, J L Sheppard, Jos S Hannahan, 
H I Greer. 



10 

Schutzen Gesellschaft — Alex Melchers, A Matthies, Theo 
Melchers. 

Marine Engineer Association, No. 65 — President, M Ma- 
guire, Vice-President, J Mouson, C H Hassen. 

St. Patrick's Benevolent Society — Vice-President; Dennis 
McSweeny, and Messrs. B P Cunningham and M J Treahey. 

Charleston Board Fire Underwriters — .J L Honour, T P 
Lowndes, B F Alston. 

Washington Light Infantry Battalion — R C Gilchrist 
Alex W Marshall, John T Flint. 

Sumter Guards— W B Foster, T T Hyde, W M Jones. 

German Artillery — Alex Melchers, F W Wagener, Her- 
man Klatte. 

Merchants' Exchange— J A Enslow, F W Wagener, W H 
Jones. 

Montgomery Guards — Frank Devereaux, John J Regan, 
Isaac Dixon, John B Fleming. 

Hibernian Society — Jas F Redding, B F McCabe, T R 
McGahan, J Adger Smyth, Frank Kressel, B Mantoue. 

German Friendly Society — A Melchers, J H Steinmeyer, 
Wm Knobeloch,C H Bergmann. 

Chamber of Commerce — S R Marshall, Andrew Simonds, 
John Grimball, S V Stewart, J C Hemphill. 

Charleston Lodge, 1,104, Knights of Honor — Rene R 
Jervey, B M Lebby, W VV Simons, G Riecke. 

Vanderbilt Benevolent Association — A C Kaufman, John 
F Witcofskey, John T Forbes, A J Riley. AFC Cramer. 

Citadel Academy — Gen George D Johnston. 

Carolina Rifles — Edward Anderson, W G Harvey, Jr. 

Fellowship Society — Charles Kerrison, Jr, W E Honour, 
H L P Bolger, Campbell Douglas,, Ed ward Perry, Theodore 
Abrahams. 

Builders' and Dealers' Exchange — George W Egan, 
Edward Anderson, Henry Oliver, Oscar S Miscally, Leland 
Moore, D A J Sullivan. 

Cincinnati Society — C C Pinckney, D D, Gen Geo D 
Johnston, Thos Pinckney Lowndes. 

St. Andrew's Society — Jas Allan, A S Johnston, Alex W 
Marshall. 



11 

Charleston Council, No. 852, American Legion of Honor — 
R Heisser, S S Buist. 

Charleston Port Society— The Rev C E Chichester, 

Masonic Lodges — Charles Inglesby, A Doty, E L Roche. 

Deutscher Bruderlicher Bund — F Heinz. 

Catholic Knights of America — Dennis Kennedy, W F 
Mclnnes. 

Ancient Order of Hibernians — E M Barry, M J Danehay. 

Chrestomathic Society — Fred Tupper, Jr, W H Prioleau, 
Jr, J W Caiite}^ Johnson. 

Palmetto Guard— S G Pinckney, B C Webb, Hall T 
McGee, W H Chapman, C R Holmes. 

Irish Volunteers— P Culleton, W M Tracy. Wm Shelton, 
John Kenney. 

Philomathic Societ}^ Porter's Academy — F Lee Gruber, 
A Barron Holmes, Jr, T Allen Legare. 

The Academy of Music and the Grand Opera House were 
both placed at the disposal of the Committee for holding 
the Memorial services, and the Grand Opera House was 
selected. 
. The following sub-committees were appointed. 

On Resolutions — J C Hemphill, T A Huguenin, D B 
Gilliland. 

On Speakers — C I Walker, Rudolph Siegling, A W Mar- 
shall, A C Kaufman, C H Bergmann. 

On Arrangements — J Adger Smyth, Wm H Prioleau, 
M D, Henry P Archer, Dr Henry E Shepherd, F Melchers, 
Gen Geo D Johnston, James Allan, R Heisser, John Grim- 
ball, Rene R Jervey; Wm Mappus, P Gourdin DeSaussure, 
M D„ S Miscally, S W Simons, A J Riley, -Maurice 
Maguire, Alex Melchers, H I Greer, B P Cunningham, 
C E Chichester, Chas Kerrison, Jr, T P Lowndes, John T 
Flint, T T Hyde, H Klatte, Joseph A Enslow, W G Harvey, 
Jr, F J Devereaux. B F McCabe, John F Witcofskey, Chas 
Inglesby, F Heinz, Dennis Kennedy, E M Barry, W H 
Prioleau, Jr, C R Holmes, P Culleton, A B Holmes, Jr. 



On Finance — F E Taylor, J F Reddinir, F W Wagener, 
J H Steinmeyer, Andrew Simonds. 

On Decoration — R C Gilchrist, (4 W Egan, Edward 
Anderson, W W Simons, B Mantoue, Glenn E Davis. 

The committee then adjourned to meet at the same place 
on Sunday evening. 

Meeting of the General Committee, Dec. 8, 1889. 

The Committee met in the Council Chamber on Sunday 
evening, which invested the proceedings with peculiar 
solemnity. 

The following address was ordered to be published: 

Office of the General Committee, ]^ 
Charleston, S C, December 9th, 1889. j 

1. A cordial invitation is hereby extended to all the 
survivors of the Confederate navy, and of all the regimeiits, 
battalions and companies of the late war, who may be in the 
city, to attend the Memorial services to be held on Wednes- 
day next, at the Grand Opera House, in honor of the late 
President, Jefferson Davis. 

2. The commissioners of the public and the instructors of 
the various private schools, and the authorities of the 
Charleston and Medical Colleges, and of the South Carolina 
Military Academy, are requested to close their respective 
schools and colleges, and all merchants and other employers 
are requested to close their places of business during the 
exercises, so that the teachers and pupils of the schools, and 
all employes in every business, may have the privilege of 
uniting in the tribute to our illustrious dead. 

3. The ladies are cordially invited to attend, and the 
committee on decoration of the building request them to 
send contributions of flowers tg the Grand Opera House, at 
9 o'clock, A M., on Wednesday. 

4. All parties having Confederate battle or other flags in 
their possession are hereby urgently requested to loan them 
to the committee, who promise to Iiandle them with the 
utmost care, and to return them safely to the owners. 



13 

5. The citizens generally are invited to display emblems 
of mourning- from their houses and places of business on the 
day of the Memorial, and the entire community is invited 
to aid in every way to make the occasion worthy of this 
grand old cit}', and of the Southern people. 
By order of the Committee. , 

ZIMMERiMAx\ DA\'1S, President. 
Wm. AIKEN KELLY, Secretary. 

Invitations were also directed to be issued to the Grand 
Lodge of Masons of South Carolina, which would be in 
session. in the city at the time ; to the officers, teachers and 
young ladies of the Confederate Home, and to the corps 
of Cadets of the South Carolina Military Academ3^ to be 
present at the Memorial services. The time for the services 
to take place was fixed at 12 M , on Wednesday, December 
11th. 

The following additional committees were appointed : 

On Music— B F McCabe, A J Riley, A Melchers. 
On Providing Seats for the Stage — S Miscally, W H 
Prioleau, Jr., Rene R Jervey. 

Meeting of the General Committee, December 10. 

The last meeting of the general Committee on the Memo- 
rial services, to the Hon Jefferson Davis was held at the 
City Hall on Tuesday evening, December 10th, and the pro- 
gramme for the celebration was perfected. 

Col. Zimmerman Davis, Chairman, presided and called 
for reports from the various committees. 

Gen. C. I. Walker, Chairman of the Committee on Speech- 
es, presented the following programme of arrangements, 
which was adopted : 

Music. 

Col. Zimmerman Davis, Chairman of Committee, calls 
meeting to order, and invites Mayor George D. Bryan, to 
take the Chair. 



14 

Major Franz Melchers, nominates the vice-presidents and 
secretaries. 

The Rev. John Jolinson, makes the opening prayer. 

Music. 

The Rev R. N. Wells, D. D., reads "The Conquered 
Banner." 

The Hon. A. G. Magrath, introduces appropriate resolu- 
tions. 

Resolutions seconded by 

Major T. G. Barker. 

Music. 
Gen. B. H. Rutledge. 

Music. 
Rev. W. T. Thompson, D. D. 

Music. 
Gen. Edward McCrady. 

Music. 
Rev. R. C. Holland, D. D. 

Music. 
Col. H. E. Young. 

Music. 
Hon. Geo. L. Buist. 

Music. 
Mr. J. R K. Bryan. 

Music. 

Resolutions adopted, the meeting rising. 

The Rt. Rev. H. P. Northrop, D. D., makes the closing 
prayer. 

Mr. W. W. Simons, of the Committee on Decorations, re- 
ported progress, but said that on account of the limited time 
for the decoration of the Grand Opera House, it was imper- 



ative that the doors be closed and no one admitted until 
11.30 o'clock. This recommendation was adopted. 

Mr. J. Adger Smyth, Chairman of the Committee of 
Arrangements, reported that all arrangements were com- 
pleted. He said that the German Artillery Reed Band, 
assisted b}^ veterans of the original Eutaw ^and, of the 
27th South Carolina Regiment, would furnish the music. 
He reported the appointment of the following ushers, eight 
of whom were Cadets of the Citadel Academy, appointed 
by General Johnston, who would see the audience com- 
fortably seated : 

T T Hyde, Chairman 

W G Harvey, Jr C L Trenholm, Jr 

F F Sams .J R Robb 

H M Bennett R A Palmer 

M V Haseldon J Nolte 

Edwd Anderson E T Gelzer 

Sam'l R Quincy Faber Porcher 

V B O'Driscoll F C Black 

F W Glenn Preston B Bird 

R L Dargan W S Mack 

W W Simons J F Burdell 

H A DeLorme E B Hughes 

A G Guerard, Jr B F Grier 
E M Zemp. 

The only reserved seats in the Opera House will be 60 
chairs for the young ladies and inmates of the Confederate 
Home, 150 for the Cadets, and 200 for the Grand Lodge 
A. F. M. 



MEMORIAL MEETING, 

IN HONOR OF PRESIDENT DAVIS, AT THE GRAND OPERA HOUSE, 
CHARLESTON, S. C, DECEMBER 11, 1889. 



[From the News and Courier, December 12.] 

Of the thirty thousand or more white people who paused 
from their business pursuits, Wednesday, to pay a tribute 
to the memory of the President of the ill-fated Confederate 
States of America, there "\7as not more, perhaps, than a 
handful of that crowd which gathered at the intersection of 
Hayne and Meeting streets on that memorable day in De- 
cember, 1860, when Charleston's first Liberty pole was 
raised. Thousands of the brave men who wore the palm.etto 
cockade on that day are on the other side of the river ; their 
bones are bleaching on the battlefields of Virginia. Missis- 
sippi, Tennessee, Georgia and Carolina. Thousands of the 
fair women of Charleston who witnessed that event have 
laid down the burden of life. The generation of 1860 has 
almost passed away; but their descendants live, and in their 
hearts the fires of patriotism and of love of country burns as 
fiercely as in the days of '60 and '61. 

The tribute that the " Cradle of Secession " paid to the 
memor}^ of the Father of the Confederacy yesterday is proof 
of this. There is -no city in the Union more loyal, more 
devoted to the Union than Charleston. But Charleston 
does not forget — never can forget — her sons whose lives 
were off'ered a willing sacrifice for the principle of self-gov- 
ernment; and Charleston never can forget the man who, in 
his own person, embodied this principle, and who expatriated 
himself in defence of the doctrine of State rights. 

All Charleston took part in the memorial services to 
President Davis yesterday. In common with the other 
cities in the Southland, she laid her humble tribute at the 
2 



18 

grave of the great Confederate chieftain, and mingled her 
tears with those of the people of the South. 

The demonstration was worthy of the occasion which 
called.it forth. There was nothing of the pomp and cir- 
cumstance of war — no parades with martial music. There 
was only the spontaneous outpouring of a people who hold 
in loving remembrance the memory of a man whose whole 
life was devoted to the service of his country. Charleston 
lays her humble tribute at the grave of the " Father of the 
Confederacy." * ' 

The details of the day's events are given below ; they 
speak for themselves. The City by the Sea mingles her 
tears with those of her sister cities in the South at the death 
of the first and last President of the Confederate States of 
America. 

More than twenty-eight years ago the first guns of the 
secession shook the seawall and the proud temples and 
towers of this defiant and ancient City of Charleston. Again 
and again the echoes rolled over land and sea, proclaiming 
more loudly and widely than could the blast of ten thousand 
brazen trumpets that the flag of freedom had been raised ; 
that war in defence of the sovereignty of tlie State had been 
declared, and asking, in their tones of thunder, that the 
patriotic hosts should rally under the banners of the city, 
the State, the Confederate States of America. These were 
times when hope was high; the assurance of victory 
throbbed in the heart of soldier and citizen alike, the gold 
of the eagle standards had not yet been tarnished by the 
rain or storm, the gaudy silk bannerets and battle flags had 
not yet been torn by flying shot or shell, or by the over- 
hanging boughs in the glorious charge through field and 
forest in pursuit of the flying foe. The gleaming sword or 
the glinting bayonet, the flashing gold of the epaulets, the 
sheen of the brazen helmet, the nodding plume or the bur- 
nished button had not yet been beaten on by the pitiless 
rain on an hundred bivouac fields, of rusted by the noisome 
vapors and dews and frost or blood-stained battle grounds. 

Truly the scenes in this indomitable, sun-kissed and for- 



19 

tune-favored city twenty-eight years ago have never yet 
been described. 

The sights and sounds of the assembly of the knightliest 
of the sons of the Confederacy — and the daughters, whose 
hearts beat witli loving and patriotic devotion under the 
inspiration of the Southern cross — have never yet been pic- 
tured truly by the poet, painter or historian. There was no 
thought then, no craven anticipation, of those words of ill 
omen — the Lost Cause. With the roll of the first awaken- 
ing drum, the reverberation of the guns, the march of men, 
the cry to arms, the fluttering of banners, the crash of the 
military bands, the strains of Dixie and the Bonnie Blue 
Flag (hoAV bonnie and blue it must have been !) and when 

The mustering squadrons and the clattering car 
Went pouring forward with impetuous speed; 
And swiftly forming in the ranks of war, 

there could have been, indeed, no thought of dismay, nor 
of disaster, nor of death. 

But how changed the scene was yesterday when the un- 
clouded sun rose from out the sea and touched with its 
eternal glory the walls of Moultrie, tlie flower-crowned slopes 
and crests of Johnson, and the frowning casemates and 
parapet of the Gibraltar of the South. How truly typical 
of the change of scene were the hillsides of Fort Johnson, 
now carpeted and draped with wild yellow flowers, where 
for four years the insatiable soil was dyed by the life blood 
of many a martyr. What better comparison could be made 
of these drooping flowers, or indeed of the flowers in the 
gardens of the great battlefield of this historic city, than to 
say of them that, 

***** i gad in their bud and bloom. 
They were born of a race of funeral flowers 
That garlanded in the long gone hours, 
Home Knightly Templar's tomb." 

How changed the scene ! Yesterday, after a grim sleep 
of nearly thirty years, the guns of the indomitable State, 
which still fights under the crescent and the Southern palm, 



20 

thundered again! thundered over the grave of the dead 
chieftain, the idolized leader of the Confederacy, beloved, 
revered and honored in his life as warrior and reproachless 
knight, and well-nigh deified in his death — a martyr to con- 
viction and an exile in his own beloved and beautiful land. 

The first gun which shook the city yesterday at noon 
spoke only to Southern men, Southern women and 
Southern children. Its echoes must have been painfully 
eloquent to the survivors of the broken battalions, the 
aged and bearded warriors of the war between the 
sister States. With these echoes came borne on the breeze 
the solemn, silvery chimes of funeral bells. There could 
have been no thought of a military pageant to speak 
of a conquered people bursting the bonds and shackles 
of twenty-four years! The tolling bell, the reechoing 
cannon, the subdued voices on the streets of girls and 
women, and boys and men, were only commingled in 
the solemn, thoughtful unison of the music which stirs all 
hearts at the grave of the shrouded soldier when he is low- 
ered by surviving soldiers with tear-dimmed eyes to his last 
sleep. 

Perhaps it was a wild fancy, perhaps it was the poetry of 
thought that comes unbidden at times; but to whom did not 
come the thought yesterday that the rolling thunder of the 
guns did not arouse the Phantom Host wherever they now 
sleep, on Virginia's, on Carolina's, on Maryland's grave- 
dotted hillsides or blood-stained valleys ? 

One other thought certainly filled every mind in the City 
of Charleston yesterday — that the dead Ex-President virtu- 
ally lay in state under the drooping Palmetto on the stage 
of the Grand Opera House. It was there that the memorial 
services were held ; it was there that men of undoubted 
gallantry, in peace and war ; that aged matrons, whose sons 
and husbands have gone to rest in the memorial cemeteries 
of the South ; that younger women, the daughters of the 
Confederacy ; that little children, to whom the war is but an 
historic tale — it was there that all classes and creeds gath- 
ered together in spirit, and fraternal and filial devotion 



21 

around the open grave of the Ex-President of the Confed- 
erate States. 

How the memorial services were conducted and in what 
presence should form one of the most eloquent chapters of 
the war and its results. 

The hour appointed was noon. Before that time, however, 
the populace thronged the streets on their way to the last 
scene. Military pomp and pageant were absent, save in the 
uniforms and side arms of the soldiers of peace at the Mili- 
tary Academy. Earliest on the streets were, perhaps, the 
ladies of the Confederate Home. They went abroad to the 
scene, out of a house of mourning and sacred memories. 
They bore laurel wreaths, the victors' crowns, the silver 
gray moss typical of an unshaken institution, and ivy, the 
emblem of faith, and clinging love and eternity. In all of 
these, as in the faces of the gray-haired mothers of Confede- 
rate soldiers, and in the downcast demeanor of the students 
at the Home, there were again typified devotion to and 
steadfast affection for the storied past. 

Besides these there were other graceful maidens on their 
way to the house of mourning. The young ladies of Mrs. 
Isabel Smith's school, the ladies of the Charleston Female 
Seminary and of the Memminger School formed picturesque 
processions as they filed through the outer gateway of the 
building. As they passed above them were floating in the 
gentle breeze the Stars and Stripes, the proud banner of this 
great nation, and the mourning draped and drooping folds 
of the flag of this sovereign State. This was all to the out- 
ward gaze, and yet it was enough — the State in mourning 
and the nation (it should have been) at the tomb. 

Within the scene was solemn and singularly impressive. 
Men and women were at work in a dim light, so suggestive 
of the fading light of the great and grand drama of the civil 
war. There were two especially advantageous points from 
which to observe the sadl}' beautiful memorial tableaux. 

Standing on the stage at a few minutes before noon, and 



22 

looking east, the picture presented was one of peculiar and 
varied interest. At 5 minutes to 12 M. a great mass of the 
young and the old had already entered the building. From 
the stage row in the pit to the last row in the gallery, tier on 
tier had been rapidly filled. The assemblage was in strict 
keeping with the event being commemorated. Men and 
women spoke only in whispers. It was, indeed, as if they 
were assembling with the spirit and purpose of devotion in 
the auditorium of some grand cathedral. Yet a survey of 
the audience could be rapidly made from the stage. It was 
composed of men and women in the highest as well as in the 
ordinary walks of social and industrial life. Conspicuous, 
however, were the cadets of the Military Academy and the 
young ladies of the Confederate Home. Other schools were 
represented, but they could not be recognized by any dis- 
tinction of apparel or place. 

To the right and left the boxes were arrayed in mourning 
emblems. On the upper faces of the boxes was arrayed a 
groundwork of white, along which were trailed festoons of 
black, which were caught up at intervals with rosettes in 
black, and which bore pendant streamers of the same mate- 
rial. On the curtain rods were heavy laurel wreaths. The 
arm rests of the boxes were draped in mourning cloth looped 
with black and white rosettes. Pendant across the faces of 
the boxes, nearest the stage, were baskets of flowers set off 
with moss and evergreens. The railings of the parquette 
were also covered with bandeaux and festoons of black and 
white, with here and there a laurel wreath or a rosette. The 
front partition of the gallery was hung with black and white 
festoons enclosing laurel wreaths at fitting spaces. 

A conspicuous phase of the decoration was the interior 
wall over the entrance aisle. The panels of the section of 
the wall were fairly covered with pendant streamers of black 
and white cloth, against which rested many circlets of 
laurel. 

The other point of vantage for a view of the hall was from 
the entrance aisle. The stage was thence seen in all its gor- 



23 

geous but subdued spleador. High up, surmounting the 
mass of memorial tributes below, was placed a portrait of 
the man to whom the assembled multitude had come to give 
the homage of their presence. To the right of the observer, 
and resting against the portrait was the flag of the Union. 
On tlie left was the flag of the State of South Carolina. 

At the front centre of the stage and immediately under 
a portrait a large Palmetto tree spread its leaves. Against 
the trunk of this tree rested the flag of the Confederate 
cruiser Shenandoah. In front of the tree was a structure in 
box-wood and evergreen, against which shone resplendently 
a cross formed of some white flowers. Beneath this beauti- 
ful emblem was another piece of floral work, composed of 
laurel and ivy and moss, on a background of mourning 
cloth. 

Almost concealed from the spectators was the desk of the 
chairman of the meeting, Col. Zimmerman Davis, the Presi- 
dent of the Survivors' Association of Charleston District. 
The desk was draped in mourning and decorated with roses 
and mosses and wild flowers. To the left of this desk was 
the speakers' table. Its decorations were elaborate yet taste- 
ful. It was draped, of course, in mourning. On the front 
centre was a glorious wreath of laurel, and on the right and 
left wreaths of roses, white and clotli of gold. 

On the left of the stage, midway from the floor to the arch, 
were hung the flag of the Palmetto Guard and the Irish 
Volunteer flag. The Palmetto Guard flag was made by the 
ladies of Charleston just before the Guard left this city for 
the plains of Virginia. It was borne by the Guard at the 
first Manassas. It was sent back home to Charleston when 
by order of the Government the regiment flag was substitu- 
ted for the Guard's banner. This flag was made by the 
Misses Brownfield, who now reside at Summerville. 

The Irish Volunteer flag was presented by the ladies of 
Charleston to the Volunteers on tlie eve of their departure 
to Virginia, in 1861. It was, it is spid, the first Carolina flag 



24 

to reach the Virginia battlefields. Its history is one which 
would fill a chapter. It was borne by the Volunteers in 
Gregg's regiment, and was in the thick of the fray at Gettys- 
burg. 

In front of the speakers' stand was the battleflag of 
Rhett's battery, in Brook's artiller3^ It is a grand relic, well 
tattered and torn by shot and shell. It was borne in the 
army of Northern Virginia in E. P. Alexander's battalion, 
first commanded by Col. Stephen D. Lee. It was originally 
of old gold and red silk. On it are inscribed the following 
glorious legends : Manassas, Cold Harbor, White Oak 
Swamp, Second Manassas, Gettysburg, Fredericksburg, 
Spottsylvania, and other bloody battlefields. It is now the 
property of Mr. A. B. Rhett. 

Over the speakers' stand hung the regimental battle-flag 
of the 7th regiment, 2d South Carolina Volunteers. It was 
brought home to Charleston by Capt. S. G. Pinckney, after 
the surrender at Greensboro, North Carolina: It was placed 
on the stage immediately under the portrait of the Ex- 
President. 

To the left of the tree leaned the tattered standard of the 
gallant 10th Regiment, S. C. Volunteers, Col. C. I. Walker. 
The staff of this flag was made of a piece of wood from the 
timbers of the Chicora. 

There was also a flag on the stage which was shot down 
on the parapet of Sumter and was rescued by Lieut. Langley. 

When the echo from the first gun rolling across the city 
shook the walls of the building, the light was turned on the 
stage. It bathed the component parts of the beautiful pic- 
ture in a new and tender illumination. The green of the 
Palmetto tree, the polished surfaces of the arms, the blue and 
the white and the gold of the stars on the banners, the 
bright ornaments of the standards, the modest colors of the 
roses, and the sombre gray of the mosses, the dark green of 
the ivy and the evergreens shone in the all but mystic light, 



25 

like that which paints such offerings on a casket before some 
well-lighted shrine in a religious edifice. Suddenly look- 
ing upon the thousands of faces they seemed like the faces 
of myriads looking on in silent wonder and reverence and 
admiration from some far off land. And this same tender 
light illuminated hundreds of faces upon the stage, the 
numbers extending to its very rear walls. Scarcely had 
such a fancy time to come and go. when the plaintive open- 
ing harmony of Webster's Funeral March stilled the vast 
crowd as if the wand in the hand of the conductor had 
been invested with a magic power. 

The music was played by the German Artillery Band, 
led by Prof. Otto Muller. In this splendid band are eight 
survivors of the war. 

As the grand strains filled the house with their eloquent 
harmony, all, save the music, was as silent as the grave. 
Charleston was then indeed at the opened tomb of the dead 
warrior and statesman. 

When the music died away Colonel Zimmerman Davis, 
President of the Survivors' Association, and President of 
the Jefferson Davis Memorial Committee, arose and spoke 
as follows, with evident feeling and emphasis : 

Fellow-citizens : To-day witnesses the grief of a whole 
people. In every city and hamlet in this Southern country 
the men, the women and the children are at this moment 
assembled to give expression to their sense of bereavement. 
The emblems of mourning are everywhere to be seen. The 
Southern hills and valleys reverberate with the booming of 
the minute guns, and the solemn tolling of the funeral 
bells. Truly a great man has this day fallen in our Israel. 
The hero of battlefields ; the man upon the burning elo- 
quence of whose lips listening Senates hung ; the great 
chieftain of a great section of this great country ; the pa- 
triot who suffered and was ready to give his life for his 
people ; the quiet, dignified citizen ; the Christian gentle- 
man, Jefferson Davis, is dead ! 

In a few moments the mournful procession, bearing his 



26 

body to the grave, will pass, with solemn tread and muffled 
drum, through the streets of the Southern city in wliich he 
died; and we, his fellow-citizens, the people of Charleston^ 
have come together at this hour to give utterance to our 
sorrow. The Mayor of our city will preside over this vast 
assembly, and direct its deliberations. 

MAYOR GEORGE D BRYAN. 

Then came forward and assumed the duty of presiding 
officer of the meeting. 

MAJOR FRANZ MELCHERS 

Then arose and nominated the officers of the meeting. 



VICE PRESIDENTS. 



Col Zimmerman Davis, 
Samuel Webb, 
J F Lilienthal, 
Dennis O'Neill, 
William Roach, 
John M Smith, 
H L Cade, 
Edward McCrady, 
Maj Cleland Huger. 
Maj B H Rutledge Jr, 
Lieut W M Grourdin, 
Capt E T Legare, 
B Callaghan, 
Arthur Barnwell, 
SR Marshall, 
W B Chisolm, 
R F Divver, M W G M, 
Virgil C Dibble, 
Hon C H Simonton, 
Prof Lewis R Gibbes, 
Hon C R Miles, 
T R McGahan, 
A S Johnston, 



James F Redding, 
Thomas Roddy, 
M A Connor, 
Henry Schachte, 
A J Riley, 
WK Darby, 
Com D N Ingraham, 
J J Pringle Smith. 
Hon Geo S Bryan, 
Lieut P E Gleason, 
Maj Geo B Edwards, 
C Wulbern, 
Morris Israel, 
J R Read, 
WE Holmes, 
N I Hasell, 
Maj T G Boag, 
A M Lee, 
John Harleston, 
W L Campbell, 
Charles Kerrison, Sr, 
W St Julien Jervey, 
R G Chisolm, 



27 



Geo W Williams, 

E Horry Frost, 

Capt J E Adger, 

Hon W A Pringle, 

E H Jackson, 

Theo D Jervey, 

John S Riggs, 

William Carrington, 

B Mantoue, 

J Adger Smyth, 

Col Jos W Barnwell, 

Andrew Simonds, 

F Kressel Jr, 

F J McGarey, 

Samuel J Pregnall, 

AFC Cramer, 

John Feehan, 

R C Barkley, 

A Johnson, 

J P Collins, 

C L Meyer, 

C S Gadsden, 

Capt Wm Aiken Kelly, 

Hon A G Magrath, 

R N Gourdin, 

Robert Adger, 

Gen F W Capers, 

Gen B H Rutledge 

Hon W A Courtenay. 

Dr H M Bruns, 

F J Pelzer, 

Bernard O'Neill, 

WB Smith, 

B Bollmann, 

J C H Claussen, 

ColS Lord, 

Capt Jacob Small, 

H H DeLeon, 



Major E Willis, 

E L Kerrison, 

John Harleston, 

J R Rotertson, 

Geo W Williams, Jr, 

John P DeVeaux, 

F Heinz, 

Louis Cohen, 

A DeCaradeuc, 

Dr John L Dawson, 

Col John Cunningham, 

Dr Middleton Michel, 

Dr R A Kinloch, 

Dr R L Brodie, 

Dr F L Parker, 

Dr I W Angel 

Dr T Grange Simons, 

Dr J S Buist, 

S H Wilson, 

Capt J J Westcoat, 

N A Hunt, 

W M Connor, 

Thomas Turner, 

W M Bird, 

B Boyd. 

W M S Lesesne, 

A Doty, 

J N Nathans, 

Wm H Jones, 

Capt E L Halsey, 

Daniel Ravenel, 

H D Lowndes, 

E L Wells, 

W K Steed man, 

Hon W W Sale, 

N Levin, 

A S J Perry, 

Alexander Melchers, 



28 



Rt Rev W B W Howe, 
Rev G R Bracket!, D D, 
Rev A T Porter, D D, 
Rev J Marion Boyd, 
Rev J E Carlisle, 
Rev T P Burgess, 
Rev F J Shadier, 
W E Huger, 
Henry VV Frost, 
Steven L Howard, 
Capt Edward L Parker, 
P Culleton, 
Samuel IJart Sr, 
Dr W H Huger, 
Dr W C Ravenel, 
Dr A M Lynah, 
Dr Manning Simons, 
Dr G E Manigault, 
Dr H M Haig. 
Rev J T Pate, 
Capt W E Stoney, ' 
Gen Rudolph Siegling, 
H P Archer, 
DBGilliland. 
Capt Franz Melchers, 
Rev C C Pinckney, D D, 
Dr H E Shepherd, 
Gen T A Huguenin, 
S Wragg Simons, 
Rev C S Vedder, D D, 
T P Lowndes, 
T T Hyde. 
W H Prioleau, 
Capt J H Stein meyer, 
W W Simons, 
William Mappus, 
Dennis Kennedy, 
John T Flint, 



Very Rev D J Quigley, 
Rev R D Smart, 
Rev Louis Muller, D D, 
Rev Robert Wilson, 
Rev W H Campbell, 
Rev E T Horn, D D, 
C J Huguenin, 
D E Huger Smith, 
W M Muckenfuss, 
Lee Howard, 
Harvey Cogswell, 
Henry Siegling, 
Dr T L Ogier, 
Dr J P Chazal, 
Dr F L Frost, 
Dr H G Eraser, 
Dr John L Ancrum, 
Dr H M Cleckley, 
Dr TS Grimke, 
Dr Henry Wnithrop, 
Capt Legare J Walker, 
J L Honour, 
A Stemmermann, 
Geo E Kingman, 
Jos G Police, 
J D Murphy, 
C F Panknin, 
J H Loeb, 
S L Bond, 
A H Doty, 
Thos Irving, 
Theo Melchers, 
I W Hirsch, 
PSchuckman, 
Col H E Young, 
J P K Bryan. 
Joseph T Dill, 
Lieut L P Robertson, 



29 



John B Adger Jr, 

Rt Rev H P Northrop, 

Rev John Johnson, 

Rev Johannes Heckel, 

Rev W T Thompson, D D, 

Rev E C Dargan, D D, 

Rev John Schachte, 

Rev R N Wells, 

Rev R W Lide, 

Rev J J Monaghan, 

Rev P L Duffy, 

Rev D Levy, 

Rev R S T rapier, 

Rev R A Webb, 

Rev C E Chichester, 

Rev R W Memminger, 

Rev H M Grant, 

Gen C I Walker, 

J C Hemphill, 

P P Toale 

Capt A W Marshall, 

C H Bergmann, 

Capt F VV Wagener, 

Gen Geo D Johnston, 

John Grimball. 

Col L DeB McCrady. 

Dr A B Rose, 

A C Kaufman, 

George W Egan, 

Col Charles Kerrison Jr, 

Rene R Jervey, 

Hall T McGee, 

E M Barry, 

A W Taft, 

Prof A Sachtleben, 

Major T G Barker, 

Hon James Simons, 

Capt K S Tupper, 



Dr H B Horlbeck, 

Dr A N Bellinger. 

Dr A Fitch, 

Capt B F McCabe. 

F E Taylor, 

Dr F P Porcher, 

Dr B M Lebby, 

Dr P G DeSaussure, 

Maj R Q Pinckney, 

T Moultrie Mordecai, 

John Duncan, 

Oskar Aichel, 

L L Cohen, 

D Haas, 

E L Roche, 

H C Hughes, 

Joseph Bock, 

W J Miller, 

P C Zylstra, 

I M Falk 

T A Melchers, 

Dr A A Kroeg, 

John E Boinest, 

GW Dingle, 

W A Boyle, 

J S Mitchell, 

Joseph A Enslow, 

Col R C Gilchrist, 

S Miscally, 

Capt H Klatte. 

George A Wagener, 

Reinhard Heisser, 

W P Holmes, 

C O Witte, 

Col J B E Sloan, 

Hon A T Smythe, 

Capt C A McHugh, 

Col John F Ficken, 



30 



J D Cappelinann, 

A H Mowry, 

Col A G Magrath, Jr, 

Capt George H Walter, 

Capt John C Simonds, 

Lieut W T Keogh, 

Maj C B Northrop, 

E Lafitte, 

W G Harvey Sr, 

E S Burnham, 

F J Devereaux, 

C F Schwettmann, 

Col L DuBos, 

"Maj W G Eason, 

Maj W H Brawley. 

Capt H L P Bolger. 

Col Jas Armstrong, 

Col S B Pickens, 

Maj Geo W Bell, 

Capt S G Stoney, 

W G Harvey, Jr., 

Louis J Barbot, 

Hutson Lee, 

Capt Wm Enston Butler. 



Col Hugh Ferguson, 
Capt Charles Inglesby, 
Major J H Holmes, Jr, 
Capt F W Jessen, 
Lieut J Lamb Perry, 
Lieut G C Schmetzer, 
Capt John S Horlbeck, 
F Welters, 
James Allan, 
H I Greer, 
Samuel Y Tupper, 
F S Rodgers. 
M Triest, 
G L Buist, 
Col E McCrady, 
Major E W Hughes, 
Capt E R White, 
Maj J L Dawson. Jr, 
Maj J C Von Santen, 
Capt W B Foster. 
Edward Anderson, 
Col Jno M Kinloch, 
Capt P Lee Bissell, 



John W Ward, 
Theo D Jervey, Jr, 
M D Maguire. 
W H Parker, Jr, 
John C Mehrtens, 
J D Enslow, 



SECRETARIES. 

Capt Henry Buist, 
Yates Snowden, 
J C Lubs, 
H J McCormack, 
R F Dreyer, 
H V O'Rourke, 
I D Hart. 



When the foregoing list had been read the gentlemen 
named were elected by acclamation to their respective posi- 
tions. The list gives the names of those who were on the 
stage, with the exception of the reporters for the press. At 



31 

the reporters' table on the right were Mr. Shirley C. Hugh- 
son, Mr. Yates Snowden, Mr August Kohn and Mr. M. F. 
Tighe, of the staff of The News and Courier; and Mr. James 
H. Moore and Mr. Geo. Koester, of the Charleston Daily 
Sun. At the table on the left were Mr Louis A. Beaty and 
Mr. Paul M. Brice, statf of the Charleston Daily World. 



Mayor Bryan, opening the exercises, requested the Rev. 
John Johnson to open the exercises with prayer. The 
prayer of the 

REV. JOHN JOHNSON 

was as follows: 

O Lord God of our salvation, who art the confidence of 
all the ends of the earth, and of them that are afar off upon 
the sea, we adore Thee, the Governor among the nations of 
the world, the Judge who puttest down one and settest up 
another. We come before Thy throne this day to humble 
ourselves as unworthy sinners under Thy mighty hand, to 
cast our care upon Thee, as weak creatures in our affliction, 
for Thou art ever to us a faithful Creator and most merciful 
Saviour. God of Love, let no bitterness rest in our minds 
while we recall the time when our fathers trusted in Thee 
and our sons went forth to battle for the right, as it ap- 
peared to them. We had prayed for direction ; we had 
sought to put off the evil day ; our people's hearts waited 
not for opportunity ; they had learned to put not their 
trust in princes »they trusted only in Thee. And for four 
long years Thou didst help them, not in the way of their 
choosing, but to leave for their posterity a name of honor. 

And now that it has pleased Theein Thy wise providence 
to takeout of this world the leader of our Confederate 
hopes, whom Thou didst exalt as one chosen out of the peo- 
ple ; now, while in the bosom of his loved Southland, they 
are committing his body to the ground, "earth to earth, 
ashes to ashes, dust to dust," may we lay to our heart the 



32 

lessons of public and private disappointment, adversity and 
bereavement, not forgetting the worm-wood and the gall, 
which came of Thy sending, to make us suffer and be strong. 
Thou didst lift us up and cast us down ; but Thou didst not 
let us be destroyed. May we learn also the lesson of a good 
example from our former President's patience in tribulation. 
When the sighing of the prisoner came before Thee, when 
the iron entered into his soul. Thou didst look upon his 
afHiction and his pain ; Thou didst strengthen him on his 
bed of languishing. Albeit Tlioii* didst suffer him to pass 
under the rod, yet Thou restrainedst the strong passions of 
his captors and gavest him a great deliverance. We thank 
Thee for Thy tender mercies toward him. for the quiet and 
the comforts of his declining years, for the grace that 
enabled him to wait with resignation his appointed time 
till his change did come. 

Grant us. Lord, from such experience, to grow more 
hopeful of the future of these United States, and of our own 
part in their national advancement. Help us now, Lord, 
according to the days wherein Thou hast afflicted us. O 
Lord, send us now prosperity. But most, we need to strive 
after that righteousness which exalteth a nation, and against 
that sin, in public and private, which is a reproach to any 
people. So shall we serve Thee with glad mind, and in 
abounding peace, giving Thee thanks forever ; and we shall 
always be showing forth Thy praise from generation to gen- 
eration, through Jesus Christ, our only Saviour and Re- 
deemer, to whom with Thee, Father, and the Holy Ghost, 
be glory in the Church, throughout all ages, world without 
end. Amen. • 

The recitation of Father Ryan's celebrated ode, entitled. 
"The Conquered Banner," now followed. To the 

REV. R. N. WELLS, D. D., 

pastor of Trinity Methodist Church, was this prominent 
part in the programme assigned. Dr. Wells is a polished 
elocutionist, and he threw all the fervor of his soul into this 



33 

reading. Man}-- in the audience were moved by its pathos 
and beauty. 

THE CONQUERED BANNER. 

Furl that Banner, for 'tis iceari/ ; 
Round its staff 'tis drooping, dreary ; 

Furl it, fold it, it is best ; 
For there's not a man to wave it — 
And there's not a sword to save it, 
And there's not one left to lave it 
In the blood which heroes gave it. 
And its foes now scorn and brave it. 

Furl it, hide it, let it rest. 

Take that Banner down. 'Tis tattered ; 
Broken is its stafFand shattered ; 
And the valiant hosts are scattered 

Over whom it floated high. 
Oh ! 'tis hard for us to fold it ! 
Hard to think there's none to hold it ; 
Hard that those who once unrolled it 

Now must furl it with a sigh ! 

Furl that Banner— Furl it sadly— 
Once ten thousands hailed it gladly, 
And ten thousands wildly, madly 

Swore it should forever wave — 
Swore that foeman's sword should never 
Hearts like theirs entwined dissever, 
Till that flag should float forever 

O'er their freedom or their grave! 

Furl it ! for the hands that grasped it, 
And the hearts that fondly clasped it. 

Cold and dead are lying low ; 
And that Banner— it is trailing! 
While around it sounds the wailing 

Of its people in their woe. 

For, though conquered, they adore it ! 
Love the cold, dead hands that bore it ! 
Weep for those who fell before it! 
Pardon those who trailed and tore it ! 
But, oh ! wildly they deplore it, 
Now, to furl and fold it so. 



31 

Furl that Banner ! True, 'tis gory, 
Yet 'tis wreathed around with glory, 
And 'twill live in song and story 

Though its folds are in the dust ; 
For its fame on brightest pages, 
Penned by poets and by sages, 
Shall go sounding down the ages — 

Furl its folds, though now we must. 

Furl that Banner softly, slowly: 
Furl it gently — it is holy, 

For it droops above the dead. 
Touch it not— unfold it never ; 
Let it droop there, furled forever 

For its people's hopes are dead! 

THE RESOLUTIONS, 
were then read by 

Ex-Governor A. G. MAGRATH, 

who introduced them as follows : 

The goodly presence of the people of this city, the solemn 
tolling of the bells, the badges of mourning which hang 
around all public buildings, the cessation of all secular pur- 
suits, the suspension of all avocations, the gathering to- 
gether of the old and the young, of men and their wives 
and daughters, the suppressed breathing of all here assem- 
bled, attest the grave and solemn character of the present 
occasion. 

It IS to pay a tribute to the dead — a service doing honor 
to the dead and to the living ; to the dead now no longer 
sensible of a manifestation which was dear to him in life ; to 
those who render it, because from him to whom it is given 
no response can come. It is their own free will offering. 

The admiration and the affection of those with whom he 
was so closely associated will no longer animate his spirit ; 
no response will he give to those who offer this tribute of 
their deep-seated affection. But if it can be given to one 
in that spirit land to retain the feelings akin to humanity, 
what higher emotion can be connected with this life than 



35 

to know that beyond the grave he carries with him the love 
and affectionate recollection of those with whom he lived ; 
by whom he was trusted and honored ; who anxiously 
watched the expiring flame of life, and tenderly laid him in 
the grave which forever closed him from the view of those 
who survive him. 

He has left us to join the kindred spirits, who in this life 
were so dear to him, and so true to those who trusted him 
and them. He has crossed the river, and is at rest and in 
peace with those who are now with him on the other side of 
that river. 

Jefferson Davis is dead ! In his early life, the gallant 
soldier; in later years, a Senator in that Senate House, 
which at that time more than justified the pride of those 
who felt to be a Senator, in the Senate House of Venice, the 
supremest honor in life. And he was the recognized peer 
of the proudest in that body of which he was one. He was 
the first and last President of the Confederate States of 
America. For more than four eventful years he was the 
chief of the Union of the States, which had assumed that 
designation of their political union. He had charge of the 
cradle in which the new born political body was placed. He 
was the faithful watcher who was still by that cradle when 
life left all that was mortal in it. 

He paid the penalty, little short of life, for his devotion to 
the people who had chosen him for their chief. He , the 
head of a proud and spirited people, was consigned to the 
precincts of a dungeon ; and, alone and helpless, the irons 
which confine the felon were fastened on the limbs of one 
who had ever illustrated the highest quality of chivalry in 
its proudest day. A.nd his life, as it will be read in later 
days, touched with that romance which is excited by the 
perusal of heroic life and sufferings, will incline many a 
generous and noble-minded youth to emulate his conduct 
and wish to be like him, even with the same bonds. He 
kept his faith with the people who trusted him, and their 
faith will be ever kept with his memory, because he suffered 
for them, and would do so even to the loss of life. " Greater 



36 

love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life 
for his friend." 

No censure can be more unjust than that which, in con- 
nection with the secession of some of the States, would stig- 
matize Jefferson Davis as a conspirator against the rights of 
any portion of the people of the United States. The right 
which was asserted, and in that assertion he was by ihe 
choice of the people made their chief, was a right which 
they claimed as belonging to them ; and accepted as a funda- 
mental article in tlieir political faith. They so believed it, 
and he, with them, also so believed. They believed it was 
inherent in their recognition as independent States, incor- 
porated with the original articles, and had not been waived 
by any implication from the purpose to form a more perfect 
union. 

It would be in more than questionable taste to re-open 
the discussion of that question : if opened at any time or 
place, this is not the time or the place. And yet it is due to 
the memory of Jefferson Davis to say that in the opinion of 
one whose opinion is of recognized authority and opposed 
to all wars, the civil war in these United States was one of 
the four that have been considered necessary wars. It is 
not for U3 to speculate in such a matter further than to say, 
it seemed inevitable. 

It has been said that Jefferson Davis would have preferred 
the control of the armies than to be the head of the Civil 
Government of the Confederacy. Whether such would 
have been his choice, we know not : nor can we know 
whether if that had been his position he could have done 
more service than the gallant soldiers who followed, amid 
all trial and suffering, the fortunes of the flag under which 
they fought. 

But in that position which he did accept, it cannot be 
doubted that his administration of the laws in the exercise 
of the great power with which he was necessarily clothed 
was marked by the greatest care and consideration for the 
people who were under his charge. It has been said of him 
that when called on to approve a sentence in which the 



37 

penalty was death, he ever did so with the most careful con- 
sideration, and never without great reluctance. 

Yet his sense of duty and the obligation it imposed is not 
more characteristically exhibited than in the anecdote of 
his conduct when in the army and ordered to make the 
arrest of a brother officer, who was the closest of his peers 
and friends, and who refused to be arrested. He declined 
to take a guard with him, and went alone. " If," said he, 
" you refuse to be arrested, dear as we are to each other, I 
must kill you to enforce the order, or you must kill me to 
justify me in not taking you back with me." 

It matters but little now to consider whether, if the ulti- 
mate decision of the question of Secession had been left to 
Mr. Davis at the time when it was adopted, he would then 
and under all the circumstances have so resolved. Certain 
it is that he did not regard it as an issue easily to be decided, 
or without great trial and suffering, whatever might be the 
result. In the course of his Congressional service, and 
specially as the head of the department of war, he knew the 
great and thoroughly organized forces which could be called 
into action. It may be that if the responsibility rested on him 
alone, the great issues involved in the contest would have 
inclined him to postpone the resort to arms as long as was 
possible, rather than hastily submit them to the fearful de- 
cision of battle. But he felt that the right was with the 
people, in whose behalf he was then acting, and with that 
people the sense of what was their right and the considera- 
tions which influenced them made conflict irrepressiblie. 
He did what he believed to be right, and if it be so that he 
was mistaken, but of which there is nothing more than 
random and carping criticism, he vindicated the honesty of 
his convictions, under suffering scarcely surpassed by the 
torture of the rack. 

No one possessed of the feelings which belong to humanity 
could ha\e entered the harbor which protects the fortress 
in which this illustrious prisoner was confined, in manacles, 
and have felt for him other than the most profound sym- 
pathy. He was a lone, sick man. The idea of rescue was 



38 

absurd. He was not yet condemned ; he was yet to be tried 
according to the law of the land, and yet was undergoing 
the punishment which would follow conviction. And it is 
here that across this dark and gloomy picture there comes 
a gleam of light that should not be forgotten. 

The highest magistrate, one whose political tendencies 
were positively adverse to the accused, when called to pre- 
side at his trial refused to sit as a Judge, in a place wherein 
the law of the land was supplied by martial law. Men 
whose political opinions were adverse to the accused, volun- 
teered for his defence against the charge of treason ; and 
when the form of a trial was abandoned the sureties required 
for his deliverance were also they, who had differed with 
him in the opinions, because of which he was undergoing 
the sufferings he had to endure. 

And so, at last, the severe suffering of the first and last 
President of the Confederate States, so far as it could be in- 
flicted by human hands and power, came to its close, and 
he was released from his prison, the chains stricken from the 
worn and wasted limbs, and he was at his home, in the care 
of his devoted family, and left for the balance of his life to 
contemplate the overthrow of his effort to restore in its 
pristine vigor the great underlying principle of the sover- 
eignty of the States which formed the Federal Union. 

Never at any time during the eventful period from the 
firing at Fort Sumter lo the surrender at Appomattox had 
the people of the seceding States cherished such admiration 
for their President as when, in his captivity, he was the 
victim of the power which imposed such sufferings on him. 
For the people of these States knew and felt that he was 
suffering for them ; that he was in a dungeon, manacled, 
shut out from all solace in that weary imprisonment, with 
the contemplation of death itself before him, because he had 
been selected to lead them in the contest for their rights — 
rights which they believed to be theirs, and in which he 
believed as fixedly as they did. It will be long, if indeed 
ever again, that the people of these seceding States will be 
presented in an attitude more full of moral grandeur than 



39 

when, amid the ruins of their homes, the waste of their 
fields, the desolation surrounding them, they forgot their own 
suffering in the heartfelt sympathy for him who was then, 
as a victim for them, undergoing such severe punishment. 

From the close of the war and after his release Jefferson 
Davis lived in the peace and quiet of his own home and in 
the bosom of that family so tenderly, so fondly devoted to 
him. He, of whom it had been said that he " created a 
nation," was content to pass the time allotted to him in this 
life in the contemplation of the vicissitudes of life, above all, 
the superintending mercy of the Great Disposer of all human 
affairs. He lived confirmed in the belief of the right and 
justice of the cause which he had espoused and for the suc- 
cess of which he had so earnestly contended. He had 
nothing to regret except its failure ; and in that he warred 
not against the decree of an overruling Providence, satisfied 
for wise and beneficent purposes the supreme rule of life 
must be accepted, as that which in ways unknown are yet 
in the ultimate results to be for the good of all. 

So lived and so died one whose name will never be for- 
gotten : one whose memory by this people will ever be 
fondly cherished. Lightly rests on him the mould of earth 
which hides him forever from our view, and few can there 
be who will gather around his last resting place with more 
sorrowing hearts than this day are they now deeply in sor- 
row moved for the death of the great Chief of our Lost Cause. 
The crown of the martyr will be preserved when the wreath 
of the victor will have perished. 

Be it, therefore, resolved : 

1. That the citizens of Charleston have received with pro- 
found sorrow the intelligence of the death of Jefferson Davis. 
That they will ever cherish with the profoundest recollec- 
tion the history of a life so remarkable as his. In his early 
career his devotion to his country in his service in her 
armies ; in later life his devotion to his country in his ser- 
vice in the councils of that country ; his identification with 
the Government in that most important department, that of 
war, and the recognized value of his services in it ; still later 



40 

in his life his earnest and untiring advocacy of the princi- 
ples upon which rested the form of the government under 
which the States were united ; in the contentions which pre- 
ceded and marked the progress of the civil war; his heroic 
constancy and courage in abiding^ at whatever cost, by his 
convictions of right ; in his suffering as a captive, and the 
quiet dignity and repose after the severe trials he endured 
when restored to his home and his family ; his unostenta- 
tious faith in the religion he professed ; his continuing 
sympathy, even to the end of his life, in all that related to 
the welfare of the people among whom he lived. In all of 
these he lived with the most profound respect and admira- 
tion of those who admired the nobility of his character, and 
carries with him in death the sorrow and love of those who 
will ever regard him as a type of the highest qualities of 
citizen soldier. Christian in his public career, and in his 
private life as in public life, without fear and without re- 
proach. 

2. That a cop}^ of these proceedings be transmitted to the 
wife and family of the deceased, with the expression of the 
profound sympathy of the people of Charleston with them in 
this most sad and sorrowful bereavement. 



At the conclusion of the reading of the resolutions, 

MAJOR T. G. BARKER. 

advanced to the front of the stage, and seconded them. 

To those who were not actors in the events of the period 
from 1860 to 1865, it is almost impossible to present a com- 
plete and vivid picture of the revolution by States which 
was practically inaugurated by the action of the convention 
of the people of South Carolina, on December 20, 1860. 



41 

So much has been done by the war, and since the war, to 
diminish the Stateship of the States of this Union, and to 
destroy the ideal of State sovereignty upon which the Gov- 
ernment and Constitution of the United States were builded 
by the fathers of the Republic, that the youth of the present 
generation can hardly conceive the leading idea, the con- 
trolling principle, which was the mainspring of the politi- 
cal movement, resulting in the secession of the Southern 
States and the establishment of the Southern Confederacy. 

Nor can any one who did not live in the days which pre- 
ceded and followed the formation of the new Union of 
Southern States, in 1861, grasp a full realization of the abso- 
lute transfer of allegiance and patriotic duty which was 
made by the people of the entire South from the old Union 
to the new Union of States, known as the Confederate States 
of America. 

And yet without a proper grasp of these ideas and of the 
history of the eighty years' conflict for the maintenance of 
the State Rights construction of the United States Consti- 
tution as against aggressive consolidation theories and party 
action, no true understanding of the earnest temper and 
purposes of the seceding States can be had, and not the 
faintest conception can be formed of the life and character 
of Jefferson Davis. 

Time will not allow us to do more than glance at the 
situation, and to extract from the record a few glimpses of 
those dramatic days to illustrate and to justify the reflec- 
tions we will suggest to you as appropriate to the sentiment 
of this memorial day. 

The people of South Carolina, in Convention assembled, 
on the 20th December. 1860, passed the following ordinance: 

" We, the people of the State of South Carolina, in Con- 
vention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby 
declared and ordained, that the ordinance adopted by us in 
convention, on the 23rd day of May, in the year of our 
Lord, 1788, whereby the Constitution of the United States 
of America, and also all Acts and parts of Acts of the 
General Assembly of this State, ratifying the amendments of 



42 

the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, and that the 
union now existing between South Carolina and the other 
States, under the name of the United States of America, is 
hereby dissolved." 

On the 9th of January the people of Mississippi did like- 
wise. Then followed the State of Florida, on the 11th of 
January, Alabama on the 11th of January, Georgia on the 
19th of January, and so on. 

On receiving official notice of the secession of Mississippi, 
President Davis, then in the United States Senate, delivered 
his farewell address to that body. 

" I rise," he said, " for the purpose of announcing to 
the Senate that I have satisfactory evidence that the State of 
Mississippi, by solemn ordinance in convention assembled, 
has declared her separation from the United States. Under 
these circumstances, of course, my functions terminate here. 
It has seemed to be proper that I should appear in the 
Senate and announce that act and to say something, al- 
though very little upon it. The occasion does not invite 
me to go into the argument, and my physical condition does 
not permit it, yet something would seem to be necessary, on 
the part of the State I here represent, on an occasion like 
this. It is known to Senators who have served here that I 
have for many years advocated as an essential attribute of 
State sovereignty the right of a State to secede from the 
Union. If, therefore, I had not believed there was justifiable 
cause — if I had thought the State was acting without 
sufficient provocation — still, under my theory of govern- 
ment, I should have felt bound by her action. I. however, 
may say I think she has justifiable cause, and I approve of 
her acts. I conferred with the people before that act was 
taken and counselled them that if they could not remain 
that they should take the act. I hope none will confound 
this expression of opinion with the advocacy of the right of 
a State to remain in the Union and disregard the constitu- 
tional obligations by nullification. Nullification and seces- 
sion are, indeed, antagonistic principles. Nullification is 
the remedy which is to be sought and applied within the 



43 

Union against an agent of the United States when the agent 
has violated constitutional obligations and the State assumes 
for itself and appeals to other States to support it. But when 
the States themselves and the people of the State have so 
acted as to convince us that the}' will not regard our con- 
stitutional rights, then, and then for the first time, arises the 
question of secession in its practical application. That 
great man who now reposes with his fathers, who has been 
so often arraigned for want of fealty to the Union, advo- 
cated the doctrine of nullification because it preserved the 
Union. It was because of his deep-seated attachment to the 
Union that Mr. Calhoun advocated the doctrine of nullifica- 
tion, which he claimed would give peace within the limits of 
the Union, and not disturb it, and only be the means of 
bringing the agent before the proper tribunal of the State for 
judgment. Secession belongs to a different class of rights, 
and is to be justified upon the basis that the States are 
sovereign. . The time has been, and I hope the time will 
come again, when a better appreciation of our Union will 
prevent anyone denying that each State is a sovereign in its 
own right. Therefore I say I concur in the act of my State 
and feel bound by it. * * * * * 

We have proclaimed our independence. This is done with 
no hostility or any desire to injure any section of the 
country, nor even for our pecuniary benefit, but from the 
high and solid foundation of defending and protecting the 
rights we inherited and transmitting them unshorn to our 
posterity." 

In her ordinance the State of Alabama had invited the 
other Southern States to send delegates to a convention to 
meet in Montgomery on the 4th February. 

The first work of the Convention of States at Montgomery 
was the adoption of a provisional constitution for the new 
Confederacy, which was done on the 8th February. 

The next work (on the 9th February) was the unanimous 
choice of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, of Mississippi, as Presi- 
dent, and Alexander H Stephens, of Georgia, as A'^ice-Presi- 
dent. 



44 

Thus it was, that, at the very inception of their movement 
to a new Union and an independent nationality, the South- 
ern States turned to Jefferson Davis, at once, as their chosen 
leader and as the conspicuous exponent of their principles. 

And now let us see, how Mr. Davis comprehended those 
principles, and with what steadfast consistency he in- 
terpreted the action of the States of the South. 

On June 20th, 1885, Mr. Davis writes to the Jackson 
(Miss.) Clarion, as follows : 

"From the statement in regard to Fort Sumter, a child 
might suppose that a foreign army had attacked the United 
States — certainly could not learn that the State of South 
Carolina was merely seeking possession of a fort on her own 
soil, and claiming that her grant of the site had become 
void. When the sovereign independent States of America 
formed a constitutional compact of union, it was provided in 
the 6th Article thereof that the officers of the United States 
and of the several Stales shall be bound by oath or affirma- 
tion, (as the case may be) to support the Constitution ; and 
by the law of June 1, 1789, the form of the required oath 
was prescribed as follows: 'I, A, B., do solemnly swear that 
I will support the Constitution of the United States.' That 
was the oath. The obligation was to support the Constitu- 
tion. It created no new obligation, for the citizen already 
owed allegiance to his respective State, and through her 
to the Union of States, of which she was a member. The 
conclusion is unavoidable that those who did not support, 
but did violate, the Constitution were they who broke their 
official oaths. The General Government had only the 
powers delegated to it by the States. The power to coerce a 
State was not given but emphatically refused. Therefore 
to invade a State, to overthrow its government by force of 
arms, was a palpable violation of the Constitution which 
officers had sworn to support, and thus to levy war against 
States which the Federal officers claimed to be still in the 
Union was the treason defined in the 3rd Section of the 3rd 
Article of the Constitution, the only treason recognized by 
the fundamental law of the United States." 



45 

Such was the answer which, after the war had long ended, 
Jefferson Davis in defence of Lee and Jackson, and Albert 
Sydney Johnson, and the other Southern officers of the old 
army, who had resigned their commissions, and obeyed the 
mandate of their respective States, gave back to the slur, 
attempted to be cast upon them by the followers of those 
officers of that army, who obeyed Abraham Lincoln and in- 
vaded the South. 

When, in the early days of the Confederacy, Kentucky 
was invade4 by the United States army, and her people pre- 
vented from acting for themselves on the question of seces- 
sion, friends of Mr. Davis urged him to send troops into 
Kentucky, there to support the friends of the Southern 
States, and to prevent the United States Government from 
intimidating the Legislature and people of that State. In 
replJ^ Mr. Davis said : " I will not do such violence to the 
rights of the State." Referring to this matter after the war 
had ended, when, in view of the failure of the Confederate 
cause and the loss of Kentucky to the Southern States, a re- 
gret that he had not sent troops in 1801 to uphold the Seces- 
sionists in Kentucky might well have been pardoned. Mr. 
Davis in 1884, writes to Dr. Garnett, his personal friend and 
family physician, who had united with others in urging the 
above action upon Mr. Davis, thus : 

" My answer, as correctly stated by you, sliows that my 
decision was not based on expediency, and however reluctant 
I may have been to reject the advice of yourself and other 
friends, in whose judgment and sincerity I had implicit 
confidence, I could not, for all the considerations involved, 
disregard the limitations of our Constitution and violate the 
cardinal principles wliich had been the guiding star of my 
political life." 

The venerable editor of the Richmond Enquirer, Mr. Nat. 
Tyler, writes, to Mr. Davis in January, 1885 : 

" I have always believed if you had assumed absolute 
power, shot deserters and hung traitors, seized supplies and 
brought to the front every man capable of bearing arms, 
that a different result of the war might have been obtained. 



46 

But your very sensitive respect for Constitution and law, 
for the rights and sovereignty of States, is attested b}^ the 
fact that the wildest license was allowed to the press, and 
that, 'right under your nose,' to use Mr. Stephens' expres- 
sion, the Examiner daily expressed sentiments of opposition 
to your measures which, if any newspaper in the United 
States had dared to publish against Mr. Lincoln's recom- 
mendations, its editor would have been promptly im- 
prisoned. By any comparison that can be made between 
your administration and that of President Lincoln, history 
will award you far more respect for the essential features of 
personal liberty, for deference paid to State authority, and 
for respect shown for constitutional restraint." 

In August, 1886, the Rev. J. Wm. Jones, the able and en- 
thusiastic secretary of the Southern Historical Society, 
visited Mr. Davis at Beauvoir, Mississippi, and there reports 
of him : " He talked freely and in the most interesting 
manner of the causes, progress and results of the war, and, 
while fully accepting the logical results, he seems pro- 
foundly anxious that our children should be taught the 
truth, and that our people should not forget or ignore the 
great fundamental principles for which we fought. As for 
allowing the war to be called 'The Rebellion' and our Con- 
federate people 'Rebels,' he heartily repudiated and con- 
demned it. 'A sovereign cannot rebel,' he said, 'and 
sovereign States could not be in rebellion. You might as 
well say Germany rebelled against France, or that France, 
(as she was beaten in the contest) rebelled against Germany.' 
He said that once in the hurry of writing he had spoken of 
it as 'the civil war,' but had never used that misnomer 
again.' 

We stand to-day by the re-opened grave of the Southern 
Confederacy in which we buried, a quarter of a century ago 
all that remained of the glorious hopes which for a period of 
four heroic years had ennobled and exalted a nation of 
eight million people. In spirit we attend the freshly opened 
grave, at this solemn hour, waiting to receive the earthly 



47 

remains of one who was the longest and to his very latest 
breath the truest friend of the Confederate South. To-day, 
and at this hour the last wail of a grief-stricken people, the 
last sob of a pent up agony, goes forth from the hearts of a 
nation that once was, and now is no more — forever. 

What mortal man, gifted though he be with the powers 
of eloquence divine, can hope to rise in utterance to the 
grandeur and the height of the feeling which inspires the 
hearts that at this hour grieve such grief, and which throb 
with an agony of bereavement so bereft. It seems to me 
that there is but one warrant for the presumption which 
would make one attempt to utter the sentiment of the hour; 
the warrant that comes from the share which the speaker 
has had in the hopes that filled the hearts of his countrymen 
during those four grand.years of trial, and the share which 
he had in the grief which came with the destruction of those 
hopes in the sudden and eternal death of the nation upon 
whose future his fondest aspirations had hung. By virtue 
of such warrant alone I venture to address those who have 
assembled here to-day, consenting as you here consent, to 
tear off once more, and for the last time, the scab which had 
closed over the bleeding wounds of 1865, and to let the 
stream of woe flow afresh from your hearts, poured out as a 
sacred libation upon the bier of President Davis. 

What a flood of association overpowers us in the reminis- 
cence of those once familiar words, " President Davis !" 
How they carry us back away " from all the commonplace 
chaff of life," from the ignoble atmosphere of " time-servers 
and self-seekers" to the glorious days of our struggle for an 
independent national existence, and of our contest for those 
principles of State sovereignty and constitutional govern- 
ment, of which Jefferson Davis will live in history as the 
foremost and most uncompromising champion ! 

We all feel to-day, awakened in our hearts by the fact of 
his death, one prevailing sentiment of gratitude that such a 
leader — one so high in moral greatness, so grand in dignity 
of character, so pure in lofty conception of duty, so loyal to 
the faith to which he had pledged himself, so brave, so 



48 

great, so true — was our leader and our President; and that 
lie will, as the type of our Southern civilization, as the in- 
carnation of the principles of constitutional liberty, ever live 
in history as the noble and unsullied representative of our 
Southern Confederacy. 

Well may we afford, in the presence of this thought, to 
pass by with contempt the petty malice of those who would 
malign his memory, and seek to brand with the name of 
treason that cause to which he gave his life's best service and 
for which he encountered martyrdom itself. We know that 
our cause is forever lost, that no Southern Confederacy will 
ever again exist, that hencefortli we ourselves, and those 
who live after us in the South, will give our fortunes and 
our lives, if need be, to the defence of the Government of 
the United States, and that the flag of the Union will find no 
truer guardians than the sons of the South will be of its 
safety and glory ; but we also know tliat the Southern doc- 
trine of the reserved rights of the States, and the independ- 
ent sovereignty of each, within the Union, properly enforced, 
will yet be acknowledged by our very revilers themselves as 
the most important principle of American liberty, and as 
the only safeguard to this Republic against the opposing 
principles of consolidation. We may also believe and know 
that when the calm judgment of history comes to take the 
place of sectional prejudice and party bitterness, the work of 
those who fought for the Southern Confederacy will be ad- 
judged to be not in vain, but will be considered, by all true 
supporters of the United States Constitution as the most 
timely and valuable protest which has been ever recorded 
against the encroachment of those who would, by oblitera- 
ting the States, convert a government of States into a 
gigantic tyranny. And when that day shall come we can 
even foretell with confidence that the fidelity of Jefferson 
Davis, President of the Confederate States of America, to the 
principles of State rights and State sovereignty will be 
taught, to the descendants of those who now seek to spit 
upon his fame, as an example for all to imitate, who 
understand and appreciate the principles of government 



49 

which are crystalized in the Constitution of the United 
States. 

Let the petty malice of to-day then pass by us unnoticed 
and unregarded, and let us cast our prophetic vision into 
that future when Jefferson Davis, President of the Confede- 
rate States of America, will be held up to the youth of the 
whole of this great Republic as a man and a statesman 
worthy of the reverence of mankind by the side of William, 
Prince of Orange, and of George Washington, President of 
the United States of America. 



The next speaker was 

GEN. B. H. RUTLEDGE, 

who spoke as follows : 

The death of Jefferson Davis, although not unexpected, 
came like a shock. It awoke memories of pride and an- 
guish, of joy and of sorrow, of glory and of disaster, which 
seldom occur even in the history of a nation. Generations 
live, fulfill their destiny and pass away, without even con- 
ceiving the intensity of passion and patriotism that charac- 
terized the eventful period during which Mr. Davis stood at 
the helm and directed the stormy course of the Southern 
Confederacy. He attended its birth ; he presided over its 
brief but glorious career, and he saw it fall, "never to rise 
again." His devotion to that cause was supreme. His 
faith in it never faltered. Crushing disaster, followed by 
cruel personal oppression, failed ever to extract from him 
one act or one expression that could impair the dignity of 
his position, or wound the sensibilities of the proud and 
gallant people of whom he was tlic typical representative. 
He was faithful to his principles ; faithful to his people ; 
4 



50 

brave, true, patriotic — from the beginning to the end, with- 
out fear and without reproach. Mr Davis was a hero. 

Words, however eloquent, if intended as a eulogy of such 
a man, are vain. His life and his deeds are monuments to 
him more lasting than brass. The civilized world knew 
what he was and what he did, and history will claim him 
for all time as a type and an example. The object of sucli 
manifestations as the present is simply to show the venera- 
tion which we all feel for his character and for his services. 

Mr. Davis was a many-sided man. He was a statesman, 
a man of letters, an orator and a soldier. I propose to say 
a few words of him as a soldier. He was a cadet of the 
Military Academy of the United States, He graduated at 
West Point in 1828. Very shortly after, in 1831 and 1832, 
he participated in the Indian war, known as the Black 
Hawk War, as a lieutenant of infantry, and distinguished 
himself. Subsequently he was promoted, transferred to the 
dragoons, and took part in many affairs with the Comanches, 
Pawnees and other Indian tribes. He remained in the 
army for some seven years, resigned, and became a planter 
in Mississippi. 

In 1845 he was sent to Congress, and in 1846 (the Mexi- 
can war having broken out,) relinquished his place to take 
command of 1st Mississippi Volunteers. In this war he 
again distinguished himself, especially at the storming of 
Monterey and the battle of Buena Vista. It was in this last 
combat that, being attacked by a large force of Mexican 
cavalry, he performed the feat so often spoken of — he threw 
his regiment into a V shape, the open side towards the 
charging horsemen. The cavalry were destro3^ed by the 
cross-fire. The situation was perilous, and its success pays 
the highest tribute both to the troops and the commander. 
The term of enlistment of his regiment having expired in 
1847, he was tendered a commission of brigadier general of 
volunteers by President Polk; but he declined it on the 
ground that such appointments belonged to the States; and 
that an appointment by the Federal Executive was a viola- 
tion of the constitutional rights of States. Ambitious of 



51 

military distinction as he was, he refused to accept it at the 
expense of his principles. 

In 1853 President Pierce appointed him Secretary of 
War. His administration of this department was excep- 
tionally efficient. It was during his term of office that the 
long-range rifle, (an invention which has exerted a great 
influence upon the practice of modern warfare,) and the 
system of rifle tactics were introduced into our army. As 
head of the war office he enjo3's the high repute of having 
had few equals and no superior. 

As President of the Southern Confederacy, although con- 
stitutionally commander-in-chief of the army, his official 
duties withdrew him from the actual command of armies in 
the field. He proclaimed his readiness, however, at any 
time, if his services should he so required, to relinquish the 
position and assume charge of our army. Such a contin- 
gency did not occur. He was indispensable where he was. 
There can be no doubt, however, of his capacity to direct 
grand military operations. He was a soldier by education, 
by experience, by instinct. 

His moral qualities were of the kind of which great sol- 
diers are made. He was brave, of iron will, fixed in pur- 
pose, capable of large conceptions, and possessed of a moral 
fortitude which both disregarded and dominated popular 
clamor. A man with such qualities is framed by nature, if 
opportunity offers, for majestic achievement, whether in the 
Cabinet or on the field. 

The renowned chief of the Confederacy, his destiny in 
this world completed, has left us forever ; but he has left us 
also this consolation, that in honor, courage, fortitude and 
inflexible adherence to principle, in the most trying circum- 
stances, he embodied and displayed to the world the best 
characteristics of the people whom he loved and served. 



52 
Gen. Rutledge was followed by 

DR. W. T. THOMPSON, 

of the First Presbyterian Church. Dr. Thompson spoke as 
follows : 

Mr. President and my Fellow-countrymen : We would 
have been false to all of the high and generous sentiments 
that give nobility to manhood, false to the glory-crowned, 
imperishable history of the dead Confederacy, false to the 
radiant, untarnished memory of the countless patriot mar- 
tyrs, who, at the behest of duty, went grandly down to 
death amidst the smoke of battle, false to a just appreciation 
of exalted character, basely, criminally false to ourselves, had 
we not profoundly felt the sad intelligence that flashed 
across our Southland on last Friday morning, or had we not 
as by a common impulse assembled here to-day to give 
expression to our sorrow that Jefferson Davis is no more. 

It is a privilege to be the humblest member of this vast 
gathering ; it is a distinguished honor to have been assigned 
a prominent part in the solemn exercises in which we are 
engaged. 

No series of resolutions, however exquisitely elaborated by 
cultivated genius ; no oration, however faultless in its rhe- 
toric or impassioned in its eloquence ; no requiem, however 
majestic in its numbers or thrilling in its pathos, would be 
complete that made no allusion to the religious convictions 
of Mr. Davis. Here, at least, criticism is disarmed, and here 
we touch the secret of that symmetrical, Stirling and un- 
bending character, which has constrained the reluctant 
admiration of his enemies, and has bound to him, "as with 
hooks of steel," the lasting veneration of his countrymen. 

Mr. Davis believed in God. He lived "as seeing Him who 
is invisible." He was an avowed, earnest follower of the 
wonderful Galilean, Son of Mary, Son of God. He feared 
nothing beneath the sliars but His displeasure, and this faith, 
like a supernaturally skillful artist dealing with the royal 
endowments that were his by nature, made of him a soldier 
without vain glory, a politician without demagogy, a states- 



53 

man without dissimulation, a philosopher without sophisms, 
a quasi exile without weak repining, and a devout Christian 
without bigotry or ostentation. 

He was controlled by divinely promulgated truths, not by 
caprice or sordid interest. His aim in every circumstance 
was duty, not distinction. 

"Three roots bear up dominion, knowledge, will, 
These two are strong, but stronger yet the third, 
Obedience ; 'tis the great tap root, which still 
Knit round the rock of duty, is not stirred, 
Though storm and tempest spend their utmost skill '" 

Hence many honors became his suitors and he honored 
honors when he accepted them ; and when adversity with 
iron hand shattered the Government and disbanded the 
heroic armies of which he was the head ; when manacles 
were forced upon him, not his, but theirs, the shame who 
perpetrated such atrocity ; when bitter detraction followed 
him for years and bitterer still, when friends assailed him 
with reproaches, like those imposing columns which mark 
the site of ancient Karnak, he stood imperial amidst the 
desolation that was his, a towering rebuke to the vandalism 
that essayed his ruin. 

His religious convictions superbly sustained the strain of 
every trial, and flowered in those illustrious virtues that 
shall adorn forever the tragic story of our struggle and, 
defeat. 

In his unswerving fidelity to the principles, the motives, 
the honor of "The Lost Cause," and to the self-sacrificing 
devotion of our " Boys in Gray, " he has displayed a spirit 
deserving the tribute of our perpetual gratitude, he has fur- 
nished an example it is our sacred obligation to transmit to 
all future generations. 

Yielding to the resistless might of overwhelming odds, 
the Confederacy, shrouded in deathless splendor, has passed 
into the great supulchre of extinct nations ; but it has be- 
queathed a heritage that is a priceless benediction in the 
name and fame of men like Davis, Jackson, Lee — names 
that magnificently illustrate the true grandeur of humanity. 



54 

Base is the Southern heart that will not cherish them. 
Insensible is the nature in which they do not kindle better 
thoughts and purer aspirations. 

Forget them ? Never ! With affectionate enthusiasm we 
will teach them to our children's children, and will sentinel 
their sleeping dust with granite shafts that, 

"Holy spires, will point like Gospel truths through 
Calm and storm to man's great home." 



The next speaker was 

GEN. EDWARD m'cRADY, 

who had arrived in the city the previous night from Co- 
lumbia, where he is in attendance on the Legislature. 

A most remarkable scene is presented to-day throughout 
this Southern land. From every town and steeple the bells 
are tolling ; on every common minute guns are heard as 
the people are flocking to church and hall with solemn 
ceremonies to join in spirit the ritual of the dead, while in 
the great city by the Gulf the body of one is committed 
" earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust." 

What means this? asks the stranger within our gates. 
Who is this for whom a whole people mourn and 
weep? What shall we reply? Shall we answer by telling 
him what the dead was When he died ? A political outcast 
without citizenship ? Why, then, does " every one mourn 
that dwelleth herein?" We answer, we mourn for one who 
was an outcast for our cause ; one who, for the sake of his 
people, and for his land, was without citizenship or country. 

We mourn to-day for Jefferson Davis, the head and chief 
of that government for which the Southern people, follow- 
ing the example of the American Colonies in 1775, and in 
pursuance of the principles then announced, and in accord- 



5r> 

ance with the rights reserved in 1787, endeavored to set up 
and establish a government for which we lavished oceans of 
blood and millions of treasure — a government which in- 
spired the noblest patriotism, and called forth the most 
heroic service. "We watched by its cradle ; we followed its 
bier," and now we gather together throughout this broad 
land of the Southern States to bury him, under whose lead 
and direction some of us, who still survive, marched and 
fought and bled. 

" We come to bur}^ Ctesar, not to praise him," nor to de- 
fend that cause of which he was the representative. We 
must leave all this to history, but let us throughout this 
land of which he was the ruler, join to-day to do honor and 
homage to his memory. Let us bury him, but take away 
with us from his grave the principles which he so nobly 
illustrated. Let us remember and imitate his devotion to 
duty — his heroic consistency — his calm dignity. 

''They never fail 

Who die in a great cause." 

Nor will the people of the South fail unless, unworthy of 
their past history, they forget to honor those who at their 
behests assumed the responsibility of leadership, and who 
for their sakes have suffered and endured. 

Mr. Davis was the personal representative of the Southern 
people and of their cause. When arms had accomplished 
all their dire work, and the physical power of the countrj^ 
was exhausted, in the person of Mr. Davis, the whole ques- 
tion of the rightfulness of the cause was again opened. Was 
he a traitor ? or a patriot? Was he a rebel? or was he the 
rightful head of a people who had but exercised their sove- 
reignty in setting up his government ? All the blood shed 
could not wash away or drown out these questions as mat- 
ters of right and wrong, and so after all the triumphs of 
victory, the Government of the United States was again con- 
fronted with the question : Was the doctrine which New 
England had held, and which John Quincy Adams had 
announced as the rightful remedy of Ma.ssachu setts to exer- 



56 

cise in case of the annexation of Texas, treason? How 
could Mr. Davis be convicted of treason for taking part in 
an attempt to dissolve the Union, when Mr. Adams, who had 
been a President of the United States, had introduced, in 
Congress, a petition for its dissolution, and in his place in 
the House of Representatives had moved its reference to a 
special committee. Mr. Davis was released, and the question 
as one of right avoided by the Court, and was left as the 
sword left it, where it fell. 

In all this momentous crisis Mr. Davis bore himself with 
the courage and simple dignity of a Southern gentleman. 
He never forgot that he had borne a kingly office, and 
though in prison and in chains was still the representative 
of millions of noble and loyal people. We can never suffi- 
ciently thank him that in his cell he still held high, and 
raised still higher, the nobility of his people. 

Let us, then, from this old historic city, within sight of 
Sumter's crumbling walls, the first scene in the drama of the 
civil war, in which Mr. Davis was so conspicuous, join at 
this time in committing his body to the grave with honor, 
and in doing reverence to the nobility of his character, and 
the heroism of his conduct. 



REV. R. C. HOLLAND, 

of the Wentworth Street Lutheran Church, followed, deliver- 
ing the following address on the subject of Jefferson Davis 
in the domestic circle. 

Could I have anticipated that I should be honored, as I 
am to-day, to participate in these memorial services, and to 
stand in this place to second resolutions touching the domes- 
tic virtues of our beloved and honored chief, the Ex-President 
of the Confederacy, I should have fulfilled the ardent desire 



57 

of my heart and have made a visit to Beauvoir, that I might 
bring you some memento from off that alter in the home. 
Denied that privilege I can simply share with you that 
which is our common heritage, and matter of common his- 
tory, viz, that our illustrious Ex-President was resplendent 
also in the home circle, here as elsewhere, a courtly gentle- 
man, a noble, chivalrous knight. 

However well acquainted one might be with the delicate 
courtesies and amenities of that domestic circle, it would not 
perhaps be in full harmony with the reverential feelings of 
this hour to draw that curtain with other than gentlest 
hand, nor to look in with other eyes than those dimmed by 
sympathetic tears. There are shrines fitly veiled from 
curious gaze — shrines hallowed by the heart's sincerest devo- 
tion ; shrines consecrated by tenderest thought, most sacred 
vows, love's sweetest ministrations and the incense cf pledged 
affection. You will pardon us, therefore, if we shall stand 
at reverential distance, nor intrude beyond the outer court. 

The tears that to-day are most sacred are the tears that 
bedew that domestic altar. The memories most sacred to- 
day are the memories which are supplying the fountain of 
the grief of widowhood and orphanage, viz, the memories 
that cluster in cumulative beauty about that shrine where 
but recently bowed in Christian and loving devotion the 
knightly form of the husband and father now lying cold in 
death. To-day we would pay profoundest respect to those 
tears, and honor those memories too sacred to utter, and with 
bowed head and chastened affection would silently, tenderly 
entwine our garlands of choicest flowers about that vacant 
chair in token of our regard for that higher chivalry which 
shone with peculiar resplendency in the hallowed circle of 
the home. 

Knightly in the field, knightly in the forum, knightly in 
victory and defeat, a true man, he was knightliest here. He 
was gentle as he was brave, and as courtly in the tender 
offices of aff'ection as he was princely and undaunted amid 
the disasters of war. That fidelity to sacred trust, and that 
lofty integrity which stamped his whole career with a cer- 



58 

tain grandeur and dignity, abide with him in unwonted 
fulhiess in the most sacred of all earthly relations ; and 
here, untouched and invulnerable by the cruelest shafts of 
unreasoning malice, he stands before the world unimpeached, 
an example and an inspiration to every Southern youth. 

But have we not something more left unto us than " a 
magnificent memory?" The great Southern heart is touched 
to-day. It is moved by the picture of the widow and orphan 
in tears. Oh, how this Southern heart would bound, exult- 
ant even amid its grief, if it could lay upon that domestic 
shrine offerings more substantial than garlands of eulogy 
or tears of sympathy ! This morning's paper brings us 
the word of cheer, and reveals our opportunity. The heart 
that throbs to-day throughout the Southland thrills with a 
chivalry that is ready to pledge protection and sacred 
guardianship of that altar whose high priest has just 
" passed over the river to rest," with Jackson and Lee, "under 
the shade of the tr^es." 



The next speaker was 

COL. HENRY E. YOUNG. 

A people, not a nation, at the grave of its former leader 
and chief, pays to-day its tribute to his worth. Here are all 
the marks of love and esteem, affection and veneration for 
one whose high and noble qualities success could not mar 
nor defeat and misfortune do aught than make them more 
conspicuous and clear. In the hour of her bitterest woe, a 
defeated, overwhelmed and impoverished South, looking 
upon her two highest leaders — typical Southerners — knew 
that if all else was lost, still lionor and character were not. 

We are not here to mourn Mr. Davis. We cannot mourn 
that our former leader at his ripe age has been removed 



59 

from "the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune," and is 
now beyond the reach of the ills of life. He has earned his 
rest — the rest that "remaineth for the people of God," and, 
so far as he is concerned, how can we regret the death that 
to liim is gain. For ourselves we mourn — mourn that the 
voice, always ready to vindicate the cause he and we loved 
so well and which so ably defended it from the false asper- 
sion of treason, is silenced ; that the living example of a life 
devoted to duty and of heroic endurance and patient suffer- 
ing is taken from us ; that the last great link which bound 
us to the Confederacy, for which a whole people fought as 
long as hope was possible, is broken ; but we do not mourn 
for him. 

Others who have gone before me have spoken, and spoken 
so well that repetition on my part were useless, of Mr. Davis 
as a soldier and statesman. In fact, with the pictures of 
the past brought before us as vividly as they have been in 
the last few days, it is impossible to mention Mr. Davis's 
name without associating with it high positions well filled 
and duties faithfully discharged. 

But all this has passed into the realm of history and it is 
much too early for us to say to what place Mr. Davis will 
be assigned as a statesman and soldier. 

History, inexorable in its judgments, and which never 
contents itself with mere promise, or even faithfully dis- 
charged duties, may not give him the position to which our 
love now assigns him. But there are things which will 
never be taken from him — his absolutely pure and lofty 
character, his absolute conscientiousness, his absolute devo- 
tion to truth and principle, his unswerving adherence to 
right. 

No man is perfect, but in Mr. Davis's character as a citi- 
zen and man it will be difficult to find flaws. 

Educated for the army, he graduated with distinction 
and soon won for himself a name and promotion in the only 
wars of the day. Resigning early from a career which tlien 
seemed to promise little to one of his active mind and great 
energy, he turned to the quiet and retired life of a planter. 



60 

But his neighbors did not suflfer him to remain very long 
apart from public affairs, and two years after, coming be- 
fore the people, he was taken from the Legislature of his 
State, and began his national career in the House of Repre- 
sentatives at Washington. Prominent there and active in 
the measures that led to the acquisition of Texas and the 
consequent war with Mexico, he resigned his seat to take 
command of a regiment which Mississippi sent to that 
war. 

It would be an injustice to the many brave men of his 
State to attribute to Davis alone the winning of the word 
which has always gone with the Mississippi soldiers. But 
nowhere did her men do more to win the name of "gallant,'' 
than under the lead of Col. Davis, at Monterey and Buena 
Vista. With the battle setting against the Americans at this 
latter place, Davis, with his regiment and a handful of In- 
dianians, charged at the double-quick and drove the enemy 
from their first position. Still advancing, under a storm of 
shell and shot and losing men rapidly, he attacked a second 
and the commanding position of the enemy and again dis- 
lodged them. To regain it, the enemy sent their cavalry 
against his little band, but in vain. Then came the picked 
men of Mexico, the brigade of lancers, and Davis, seeing his 
little force reduced, made his celebrated V movement, and 
receiving the charge of lancers with his fire thus concen- 
trated, drove them from the field with many an empty 
saddle. His men, in action all day and reduced in numbers, 
were exhausted with hunger and thirst. But again the 
order came to charge a large body of Mexicans forming on 
the flank for a final attack. Without hesitation he obeyed, 
and the day was won. In this charge, though wounded 
painfully, he refused to leave the field. 

"Gallant Mississippians" there were before these men, 
"gallant Mississippians" there have been many a time since 
and will be, but these men won that adjective as the 
peculiar property of their State. 

Returning to his State after the war, Mr. Davis was soon 
sent to the Senate of the United States, and hardly ever till 



61 

the end of the Confederacy ceased to do service to the coun- 
try, whether in his own State, the Senate, or in the 
Cabinet, in all doing his entire duty so as to compel even 
from a bitter opponent the statement that; he "advanced his 
department in dignity and importance." 

From this brilliant career he entered on tiie stern and 
arduous duties of the Chief of the Confederacy, and as by its 
early victories he was not elated ; so in the disasters of its 
closing years he never flinched nor swerved from his duties, 
nor lost his dignity when reduced from a nation's pride to a 
"man without a country," In all those trying times there 
is no act of his which brings the slightest tinge to the cheek 
of the Confederate, nor lessens the sympathy of the world. 
All was honorable, high, lofty and pure. Clanking chains 
and cruel manacles brought no disgrace to him. 

For nearly the age of a generation he has been consigned 
to inactivity in public affairs. But if he could not lead 
his people, he could defend them from the false and dis- 
honoring charge of treason. Neitiier failing health nor 
physical weakness could stop his labors for his loved South, 
and it is not much to predict that when history frees its 
people from the charge of treason the verdict will be due in 
great part to Mr. Davis's clear and luminous exposition of 
the case. 

The war of the Confederacy may have been a mere 
Balaklava charge for self-government. The South may 
have been blind in entering upon it — may have misjudged 
tlie mighty forces of the world which were working against 
it. It was wrong in dreaming that a written Constitution 
and historical truth would weigh a feather's weight as 
againsi the mighty impulse of a people fast growing into a 
nation. It has failed absolutely, and, so far as human fore- 
sight can peer into the future, forever. But on the blood- 
stained, shot-torn Stars and Bars of the Confederacy there 
rests no stain — no dishonor — no falsehood — no treason. 

To the end of time the world will count it a gain, beyond 
the loss and slaughter and sorrows of those four years, that 
humanity can claim as its own such men as Davis, Lee, 



62 

Jackson, Sydney Johnson, Stuart and the noble and true 
men who, whether as leaders or privates, were their com- 
panions in glory and misfortune. 



Tlie next and tinal speaker was 

MR. J. p. K. BRYAN. 

My Fellow-citizens : I feel that in this presence, and after 
the words that have fallen from the lips of an older gene- 
ration, I could well be silent. My heart tells me that when 
this day and its mournful memories are to be celebrated the 
words fitly spoken should be from the tongues of these 
reverenced veterans of the past around me, whose genius 
and courage and statesmanship even as it illumined the 
perils of war, and the darkness of war's defeat, so also in 
later years have been the chief source of the renewed life 
and hope and blessing to this people. These personal actors 
in the past are the most faithful interpreters of their com- 
rades and their long ago chieftain, and the truest witnesses 
to that past. 

But there is a profound meaning in these memories to us 
also of the younger generation, who, like myself, were in 
early childhood 'startled by the first gun of the war booming 
over these waters, or, like myself, still in early youth a 
witness to the last sad scenes in this beleagured city. For 
we are born on tliis soil. Its life is our life, its history is 
our history and its memories our memories. The history of 
a people is indeed, like the memor}^ of an individual, the 
source of its highest spiritual and moral life, and only ex- 
pires to that people, as to man, when the silver cord is 
loosed and the golden bowl is broken and the spirit returns 
to God who gave it. This is the birthright and heritage of 
every people, and as our life, our history, in short, our 



63 

memories are high and pure aad noble, as they are of ex- 
alted mind and lofty character, tender heart, heroic courage 
and deathless valor, so is the inspiration of our cliildren. 

It is thus that beyond the personal grief and sorrow for 
the dead this day, this manifestation of a wliole people is 
the genius and soul of the South, paying reverence and 
tribute to tlie personal truth and the high faith and proud 
valor of its own past — gone forever in one sense, but still 
sacred and immortal as the soul and genius of a people, sur- 
vives its direst defeats. It is in this sense that the young 
men of this generation, with faces turned to the morning and 
confident of the greater destiny that awaits the coming of 
their eager feet, would yet pause this day, and with you 
gather rou;id the bier of the chief civil representative of the 
South in that long-ago struggle when to her in her trial he 
was " The pillar of a people's hope." 

It is in the same sense, seeking the truth of history, that 
we listen to the faithful portrayal of his life as .student, 
citizen, soldier, planter, statesman and Cabinet minister, in 
the old Union, and the civil Chief of the Southern Con- 
federacy, and in its fall, even in peace, as the prisoner of 
war, and thereafter as the old man writing its story in his 
long old age. It is with eager listening, as if of their own 
past, they learn of his brilliant mind, in his youth a leader 
in the great military school of his country ; disciplining his 
life for years on the Indian frontier, where Washington 
learned the art of war; again heroic in the Mexican war as 
colonel of volunteers in the stormful charge at Monterey, a 
day of unfading lustre for his country's arms ; or again de- 
clining the rank of brigadier general conferred by his grate- 
ful country, preferring the State's proud title of colonel of 
volunteers ; again as the Southern planter, in peace, in the 
long years of his student life in manhood, in the repose and 
<[uiet of his Southern home, thence emerging fully equipi)ed 
for the hot political contests, in his State in debate meet- 
ing the giants of his day — even the mighty Prentiss — and 
carrying his State before him in the great struggle of his 
time ; again her acknowledged leader, representing her in 



64 

the councils of the Union*, as Senator, and for years a peer 
among his peers in that lofty forum, becoming in Pierce's 
Cabinet, Secretary of War of the United States, and there, in 
the judgment of friend and foe, making an impression that 
now remains upon this country. Then they hear it was to 
such a man, with such a past in this great country, the 
South, in its hope of a new country, entrusted its leadership 
— it was such a man, so equipped, who gave to the South in 
the herculean and impossible task all the devotion and 
energy of his life, and yet with all the now historic genius of 
great generals and all the valor of the bravest armies for 
four years, fought the most brilliant but hopeless war the 
world ever knew, and which ended in the final disaster that 
under the fearful odds was the inevitable doom. And in all 
that unparalleled and unequal struggle they see him, though 
at first, like Lee and Stephens, unwilling for the arbitra- 
ment of war upon the question debated in a thousand forums, 
yet when in the great argument of the century the appeal 
to the sword was finally made, steadfast and devoted to the 
Southern cause was he 

" Whose brow and breast were calm, 
While yet the battle lay with God." 

And when the stern decree of Heaven came, and his 
Southern comrades, leaders in forum and field, and all the 
g'reat armies in high and solemn parole returned to works 
and ways of peace, to work out in a higher faith and courage 
this new and marvellous destiny of the South, they see him 
for two long years a weary prisoner of war ; him alone the 
sole accused for his act in common with millions of his 
countrymen. They behold him, for a generation and to his 
dying day, alone of Southern men or his comrade leaders, 
denied in part the privileges of citizenship in the renewed 
peace and growing prosperity and fraternity of a restored 
Union — but yet, even then, giving all that was left of his 
life and spirit to his exposition of the cause of the South, 
and in his failing strength receiving the reverence and 



65 

affection of the people of the Southland in their wonderful 
inspiring restoration, as a crown of blessing to his old age. 

And passing to the sanctity of his private life, they see 
another unfading picture. It is of a Southarn home where 
as husband and father, a loving, wise and watchful spirit 
ruled ; graced and guarded by gentle, devoted and strong 
womanhood ; typical in its generosity and hospitality : 
founded in its sincerity and purity in the strong virtues of 
the Southern character, and nurtured, as it is now solaced, 
by the love of God. 

And in the peace of this Southern home, in the ripe full- 
ness of fourscore years and in the blessedness of a Christian 
hope, the tragic life went out ! And to that same bedside 
turned the Southern people in sorrow, and this day 
witnesses a funeral pageant throughout the South that has 
come to no uncrowned king in history. It is, my country- 
men, the soul and genius of this people, doing honor to its 
dead, as to its own sacred host. For even as the South 
cherishes the memory of the knightly soul and military 
genius of Lee, and still kindles at the martial inspiration of 
the grave and majestic Jackson, which are a part, this day, 
of the heritage of the American people ; aye, honored by 
mankind — even so, for the high qualities, the constancy 
and devotion and fortitude, of their civil chieftain and com- 
rade in that mighty struggle, the South this day gathers 
in reverence and universal tribute. 

And so, in the same spirit the South would garner, even 
from the beginning, all the wisdom and power of its states- 
manship and the glory of its arms, all the fair and nascent 
bloom of its literature, all the light and fervor of its poetry, 
and the passion of its song, all of its fateful history, all of the 
heroism of man, and faith and devotion of woman, and as a 
part of its life, and the life of the American people, lay it all 
upon the altar of history, in its own honor and the honor of 
its children, and for the just fame of its dead, and for the 
full, fair judgment of mankind. And when I say, garner it 
all, for this full, fierce light of truth, across the prejudice and 
5 



66 

passion of the time, I mean gather it all, and altogether, with 
no reference to political creed or act, for in its glory the South 
has been, and is, a 

"Land where, girt with frieud or foes, 
A man may speak the thing he will." 

And no nobler tribute has ever been paid to mortal man 
tlian on this very soil this people have paid in the tolerance 
of political opinion, and the adoration of heroic manhood 
by friend and foe, as witness those splendid eulogies that 
were pronounced over our own Petigru by his personal 
friends and political opponents, and that, too, in March, 
1863, when on the very question of that difference, for 
which " he withstood his people for his country," the Fed- 
eral guns were even then thundering at the gates of this 
besieged city, drowning the echoes of those noble orations 
that came from full hearts in undying honor of the orator, 
jurist and patriot, the lion-hearted, heroic man. 

That scene is without parallel in history. It is sacred to 
us forever as the lofty spirit of our fathers in generous rev- 
erence and honor, irrespective of political creed, of men of 
heroic mould and iron nerve, true to conviction and duty as 
God gave them light to see it, and "to true occasion true." 

Thus have our fathers consecrated for us, in their honor of 
free opinion, the priceless heritage of a valiant and free 
people. For, 

■'What know we greater than the soul?" 

And in this same spirit we confide to the just reverence of 
the future the mighty actors in the past. 

The last words of the dead statesman to the Southern 
people were : 

"The best hope for a restoration in the future to the pris- 
tine purity and fraternity of the Union rest in the opinions 
and characters of the men who are to succeed this genera- 
tion." 

That was his hope. And this may be the trust of the 
South this day, relying on the truth-loving genius of the 



67 

American people in a perfect union to do honor and rever- 
ence finally, where honor and reverence are due to statesman- 
ship, valor, devotion to duty and knightly heroism 
wherever, on this soil, the mind and the heart of this people 
has signally illustrated them. That all Americans in read- 
ing their country's story may read in truth all of its pages, 
and whenever the heroic man, true to duty and loyal to a 
people's trust, shall shine forth that all his countrymen may 
join in this reverent tribute which to-day is the great world's 
true measure of great men. 

" Not once or twice in this our country's story 
The path of duty is the way to glory ; 
He that walks it, only thirsting 
For the right, and learns to deaden 
Love of self. ****** 

' He that ever following her commands, 
On with toil of heart and knees and hands, 
Thro' the long gorge to the far light has won 
His path upward, and prevailed. 
Shall find the toppling crags of duty scaled 
Are close upon the shining table lands, 
To which our God himself is moon and sun. 
Such was he— his work is done, 
But while the races of mankind endure 
Let his great example stand 
Colossal, seen of every land. 
And keep the soldier iirm, the statesman pure, 
'Till in all lands and thro' all human story 
The path of duty be the way to glory." 

THE BENEDICTION. 

At the conclusion of the speaking President George D. 
Bryan rose, and, in a few brief remarks, put the resolutions 
to a vote. A rising vote was taken and the vast audience, 
me;i, women and children, rose to its feet in endorsement of 
the sentiments which had been so eloquently expressed. 

After the faultless and pathetic rendition of " Nearer my 
God to Thee " by the orchestra, the benediction was im- 
pressively pronounced by the 

Right Rev. H. P. NORTHROP, Bishop of Charleston, 

and the immense assembly slowly melted away. 



68 

After the services were concluded many persons in the 
audience, including a great number of ladies, went upon the 
stage to secure souvenirs of the occasion, and in a few min- 
utes almost every one had secured a rosebud, a bit of green, 
or a Palmetto leaf, which will in after years be cherished as 
mementoes of the time when all Charleston mourned the 
death of the last and greatest of all the Confederate braves. 

During the meeting, lasting as it did for hours, a solemn 
silence prevailed through the house save when some eloquent 
or pathetic allusion to the character of the dead President, 
or to the old principles for which the South fought so brave-" 
ly, brought forth murmurs of applause which at times 
swelled into storms of approval. 



MEMORIAL NOTES. 



The Hon. G. L. Buist, State Senator, was formally invited 
to be one of the speakers at the memorial meeting in Charles- 
ton. He was prevented from attending, as will be seen by 
the following dispatch to Col. Davis : 

"Columbia, December 11.— Col. Zimmerman Davis, 
'President, Charleston : Senate sat until midnight. In the 
absence of my colleague from the State on important busi- 
ness, my presence here is imperative in the interest of 
Charleston." 



The committee to select speakers called at the residence 
of Hon. A. T. Smythe, State Senator, but his unfortunate 
absence from the State prevented their securing him as a 
speaker. 



C'ol. James Simons, speaker of the House, was also in- 
vited to speak, but his duties at the Joint Assembly in Co- 
lumbia at the same time, prevented his acceptance. 



Miss Margaret F. Jenkins, daughter of Gen. Albert G. 
Jenkins, of Virginia, a distinguished Confederate officer, 
killed during the war, was in charge of the squad of thirteen 
fair workers, sent by the Charleston Female Seminary to 
assist the young ladies of the Confederate Home in decora- 
ting the Grand Opera House for the memorial services 
yesterday. They were among the first to report for duty, 
and much of the success attained by the committee is due to 



70 

their excellent taste and energy. . All the members of the 
committee are sounding their praises. 



The admirable portrait of Ex-President Davis, which was 
the central feature of the decorations of the stage, at the 
Grand Opera House, on memorial day, was a work in crayon, 
executed by Mr. Beauregard Betancourt, the rising young 
artist of this city. It was the right thing and certainly in 
the right place — between the State and National flags. 



The Liberty pole in front of the Grand Opera House is 
still standing. The staff is draped in black and white. At 
the top floats the National colors bordered with crape, and 
under it a large Palmetto flag, the colors of the Regatta Asso- 
ciation of South Carolina. 



All the pupils of the Confederate Home are attired in 
mourning, and will wear mourning for thirty days, in re- 
spect to the memory of the Father of the Confederacy. 



The band which contributed so much to the beauty and 
solemnity of the occasion, and who had all volunteered their 
services, consisted of : 

Prof. 0. Muller, director. 

Veterans — R. Muller, H. Ortmann, Julius Ortmann, Louis 
Ortmann, John Haas, C. Beck, ('. Holle, L. H. Koster, H. 
Puckhaber, George Bulwinkle. 

German Artillery Amateur Band — A. Bugeler, J. A. Wag- 
ener, G. B. Reils. J. Koester, A. W. Ristig, F. Cordes, C. F. 
Hencken, W. Heinz, J. D. Bulwinkle. 



71 

The rosettes which were used at the memorial services 
yesterday were made by the children of the Charleston 
Orphan House. The wreaths were made by the young- 
ladies of the Confederate Home. The flowers and roses 
wiere furnished by Mrs. George D. Bryan, Mrs. Edw'd Frost, 
Mrs. St. Julian Wilson, Mrs. E. P. Jervey, Mrs. W. W. 
Simons, Mrs. Glenn E. Davis, Mrs. A. T. Smythe, Mrs. J. 
Adger Smyth, Mrs. Daniel Ravenel, and Mrs. St. Julien 
Jervev. 



Of the relics of the war used in the decorations one not 
devoid of interest was a flag of the Confederate steamer She- 
nandoah, loaned by Lieut. John Grimball, an officer of that 
ship, in her cruise around the world. Apart from the blow 
the Shenandoah gave to the enemy's commerce, it is indeed 
an interesting fact that she carried the flag of the Southern 
Confederacy to every quarter of the globe. On the 28th of 
June, 1865, after the war had closed, she was still in the 
Arctic Ocean on her voyage of destruction. On that day 
she took eight prizes. It was not until August, while in the 
Pacific, that she heard of the end, and not until November, 
1865, did she finish her remarkable cruise, when at Liver- 
pool was hoisted for the last time, the flag of the Southern 
Confederacy. 



The following general orders were issued by General T. A. 
Huguenin, commanding the Fourth Brigade : 

Headquarters 4th Brigade, S. C. V. T., \ 
Charleston, December 7, 1889. j 

[General Orders No. 5.] 

Paragraph I. It is the painful duty of the Brigadier 
General commanding to announce to this command the 
death of the Hon. Jefferson Davis, late Commander-in-Chief 



72 

and President of the Confederate States of America. Full of 
years and honors, he has passed to that unknown land from 
whose bourne none ever return, but the love and esteem of 
his countr3'^men will cling to him so long as life lasts. 

Paragraph II. The brigadier general commanding directs 
and orders that on the day of his funeral a salute of an 
hundred minute guns be fired from Marion Square, com- 
mencing at noon, by the German Artillery and Lafayette 
Artillery, each battery furnishing a section for the salute. 

Paragraph III. Major G. W. Bell, ordnance officer of 4th 
brigade, will make all necessary preparations for the salute. 

Paragraph IV. The field and staff of the brigade and 
battalions, captains of artillery, infantry and cavalry com- 
panies, and all line officers will attend the Memorial service, 
in company with the brigadier general commanding, in 
citizen's dress, at such hour as may be appointed by the 
committee in charge of the same. 

By order of Brigadier Gen. HUGUENIN. 

George B. Edwards, 

Major and Adjutant Oeneral. 



Drawn up on the north side of the plaza, at 11 o'clock, 
were two detachments of artillery. The German Artillery 
appeared on the scene first with one of their 6-pound brass 
field pieces, with limber chest drawn Vjy a pair of magnifi- 
cent dark bay horses. The cannoneers in charge of the 
piece were composed of eight veterans who had followed the 
fortunes of the Confederacy from start to finish. Every man 
had entered the ranks at the beginning of the war and had 
served through to the surrender. They were under the 
command of the gallant Capt. Fred Wagener, who, on this 
occasion acted as sergeant of the squad. The following were 
their positions : 

Captain H. Klatte. 

No. 1, Sergt. Julius Wagener, gunner. 

No. 2, Lieut. D. W. Goetjen. 



73 

No. 3, Sergt. and Color-bearer A. W. Jager. 

No. 4, Lieut. N. Bischoff, of Company A, German Artil- 
lery. 

No. 0, Private L. Wetherhorn, of Company A, German 
Artillery. 

No. G, Lieut. John F. Meyer. 

No. 7, Lieut. C. F. Hencken. 

The Lafayette Artillery detachment, under the command 
of Lieut. C. L. DuBos, manned two of the 3^-inch steel rifles 
stored in the Citadel Academy. 

The squad was composed of the following members : 
Sergeants C. F. Gehrels, F. P. Engle, Wm. Muckenfuss and 
J. Lavergne, Jr ; Corporals C. A. Smith and A. S. Stalling ; 
Cannoneers E. S. Barwick, W. L. Daggett, W. A. Halsall, J. 
Muckenfuss, T. B. Hayes, J. E. Passailaigue, S. A. Campbell, 
J. O. R. Vicadomini, C. Lorenson, W. W. Hahn, W. Jarvis, 
W. A. Nelson, C. J. Zealey, Jos. Harbeson, W. Poulnot, J. 
Gorman, W. B. Harris, J. E. Kanapaux, J. T, Kanapaux. 

Major George W. Bell, ordnance officer of the 4th brigade, 
represented Gen. Huguenin. Capt. H. L. P. Bolger La- 
fayette Artillery, commanded the Battery, and issued the 
orders for firing the salute. 



KDITORIAL COMMENTS FROM THE PRESS OF THE CITY. 



[From the Sunday News, December S.] 

A CHRISTIAN GENTLEMAN. 

In his essay on " Christianity consistent with a love of 
"Freedom," Robert HaH, the great EngUsh writer and 
divine, says : " Distinguished merit wiH ever rise superior 
*'to oppression, and wiH draw lustre from reproach. The 
"vapours which gather round the rising sun and follow it 
"in its course seldom fail at the close of it to form a mag- 
"nificent theatre for its reception, and to invest with variega- 
"ted tints and with softened effulgence the luminary which 
"they cannot hide." It is in this spirit that we may contem- 
plate the life and character of Jefferson Davis, whose sun has 
sunk quietly beneath the horizon of this world's activities to 
rise in glory upon some fairer shore. The clouds and dark- 
ness which obscured his life have been dispelled at last, and 
the storms which beat about his devoted head have been 
lulled to rest. It is in tlie unapproachable splendor of the 
afterglow that we catch something of the light which illumi- 
nated his life and purified the heart that has been stilled 
forever. 

In the realm of statesmanship Mr. Davis was master; as 
a soldier, he knew no fear ; as a patriot, he gave his life for 
his country. But on this, his first Sabbath in the heavenly 
country, it is appropriate that we should consider the higher 
aspects of his character — the moral stature of the man. 
The Statesman and Soldier and Patriot whom we mourn 
was something higher and better yet, for he was the perfect 
type of the Christian gentleman. In the touching descrip- 
tion published yesterday of the last scenes in the life of Mr. 
Davis it is said : " Lying peacefully upon his bed, and with- 
"out trace of pain in his look, he remained for hours silently 



75 

"clasping and tenderly caressing his wife's hand. With 
"undaunted Christian spirit he awaited the end. * * 
"With his cheek resting upon his right hand like a sleeping 
"infant," the silver cord was loosed and the golden bowl was 
broken. Grand in the achievements of his life, grander still 
in the patience with which he withstood the assaults of his 
enemies and our enemies, it was in his death that he ap- 
proached sublimity. 

Senator Reagan, of Texas, who served in the Confederate 
Cabinet, and knew Mr. Davis intimately, has paid to his 
illustrious Chief the simplest and yet the highest tribute 
that could be offered. "He was the most devout Christian," 
says Mr. Reagan, " that I ever knew, and the most self- 
"sacrificing man." As he lay dying in New Orleans, Mr. 
Davis bore testimony to the faith, and " was content to 
"accept whatever Providence had in store for him;" and so 
he passed into the light. The model soldier and statesman 
and philosopher was likewise the model Christian. Even in 
the fiercest attacks of partisan misrepresentation, no charge 
was ever made against the purity of his private life, the 
integrity of his moral character. He lived above the fogs 
of sectional rancor, and died at peace with God. 

Mr. Davis was the Christian ruler of a Christian people. 
The Constitution of the Provisional Government of the 
Confederate States, began with this declaration : 

" We, the Deputies of the Sovereign and Independent 
States of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Missis- 
sippi and Louisiana, invoking the favor of Almighty God, do 
hereby, in behalf of these States, ordain and establish this 
Constitution for the Provisional Government of the same." 

The permanent Constitution of the Confederate States de- 
clared in its opening paragraph as follows : 

"We, the people of the Confederate States, * * invok- 
ing the favor and guidance of Almighty God, do ordain and 
establish this Constitution for the Confederate States of 
America." 

In his inaugural address as President of the Confederate 
States, Mr. Davis said : 



76 

"I enter upon the duties of the office to which I have been 
chosen with the hope that the beginning of our career as a 
Confederacy' may not be obstructed by hostile opposition to 
our enjoyment of the separate existence and independence 
which we have asserted, and which, wWi the blessing of Provi- 
dence, we intend to maintain. ^ * * Reverently let us 
invoke the God of our Fathers to guide and protect us in our 
efforts to perpetuate the principles which, by His blessing, 
they were able to vindicate, establish and transmit to their 
posterity, and ivith a continuance of His favor, ever gratefully 
acknowledged, we may hopefully look forward to success, to 
peace, to prosperity.'' 

In his last proclamation as President of the Confederate 
States, Mr. Davis said : 

"Let us not then despond, my countrymen, but, rehjing in 
God, meet the foe with fresh defiance, and with unconquered 
and unconquerable hearts." 

Throughout his long and illustrious life Mr. Davis placed 
the most implicit confidence in God. As the Christian 
President of a Christian people he looked to God for guid- 
ance and blessing. In the hour of defeat he still trusted in 
the strength of the Eternal. On his deathbed he rested 
with the perfect confidence of a little child in the promises 
of his Lord and Master. This is the feature of his life which 
is now most worthy of contemplation. Greater than soldier 
or orator, or statesman, or President, was Jeff'erson Davis, 
gentleman and Christian. 



A MARTYR DEAD. 

[FROM THE DAILY SUN, CHARLESTON, S. Cl 

Jefferson Davis, the grand, unconquerable old Chieftain 
of the Southern Confederacy, is dead. Reckless bigots have 
dubbed him " traitor," but his unflinching loyalty for 
twenty-four years to a cause that had flown to Heaven, there 
to be judged, and which, had no abiding place on earth any 
more save in his own faithful bosom, sufficiently give 



77 

the lie to the stigma. His Hfe since the close of the war is 
the most indubitable instance in history going to show that 
human faith and loyalty to principle, for principle's sake, is 
not a mere figment of the brain. " Traitor" do they cry? 
History will niche him in its Pantheon of noble names as 
one of the grandest martyrs in the tide of times. Provi- 
dentially martyred, be it spoken, for the truest cause for 
which men ever fought and bled. A cau.se so invincibly 
true — as human prescience goes — so panoplied and fortified 
in the armor of truth, that the gods, irrevokably com- 
mitted to the prosecution of their overruling decrees, ad- 
journed the unavoidable debate from the forum of logic and 
intellect to the arena of arms — from the judgment of the 
pen to the arbitrament of tl'e sword — and, averting their 
faces, pityingly awaited the event which fate held in store. 

We say that the doctrine of State sovereignty as deduced 
by Calhoun from the fundamentals of our Government was 
irrefragable — absolutely without flaw. The right to secede 
was its legitimate true-born child. The heresy of it was 
implanted in and twin-born with our Government. Itw^as 
in no characteristic peculiar to the South, except as the 
irony of circumstances afterward directed. 

The doctrine of secession was proclaimed by Josiah 
Quincy in the United States House of Representatives and 
in behalf of Massachusetts in 1811, at least a score of years 
before it was broached or thought of by JohnC. Calhoun, its 
greatest expounder. In opposing the " bill for the admis- 
sion of what was then called the Orleans Territory (now the 
State of Louisiana) into the 'Union as a State,' Josiah 
Quincy, of Massachusetts, went on record with the declara- 
tion that, 'If this bill passes, it is my deliberate opinion that 
it is virtually a dissolution of the Union ; that it will free 
the States from their moral obligation, and as it will be 
the right of all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to 
prepare for a separation, amicably if they can, violently if 
they must.' " 

It will thus be seen that it was left an open question in 
the founding of the Government and was pre-ordained to be 



78 

fought out, circumstances alone deciding who should 
champion the affirmative and who the negative side. A 
change of circumstances would have made the Northern tiie 
seceding States as the actual circumstances impelled the 
South to that course. 

It was Jefferson Davis's fate to be involved with us in the 
settlement of the question b}^ an overruling Providence, and 
never was mortal man more true and faithful to a people 
and their cause that was he to the people of the South and 
the cause of Secession. True and loyal heart ! 

" Cold in death the buried heart may lie. 
But that which warmed it can never die." 

We have sometimes been pained at the .seeming lack of 
fervor in the veneration of our defeated people for their 
peerless chief — aye, and the undeserved reproaches which 
some have not refrained from heaping upon his sacred head. 
Let then a united South gather reverently around his bier, 
and if we have ever been guilty of anything that caused 
that great heart pain, whose every pulsation was faithful to 
us, there let us bitterly repent the unworthy thought or 
deed. 

The South should omit no mark of respect for its departed 
hero, and the General Assembly of South Carolina, now in 
session at Columbia, besides appropriate ceremonies and ob- 
servances, should .send a committee of its members to attend 
his obsequies. 



I FROM THE CHARLESTON WORLD. | 

JEFFERSON DAVIS. 

Habet ! 

The last great actor in the great struggle of 1861, draws 
his last breath as the year of 1890 rapidly approaches, and 
the great heart of what was once the Southern Confederacy 
gives its last faint throb ; for the first, and the last, and the 
only President of the vanished nation is dead. 

Nearly thirty years since the beginning of that great 



79 

struggle, where millions met in sanguinary and successive 
conflicts, he, the head and front of the conquered, has rested 
calmly, the sad and silertt spectator of the reconstruction 
which passed over the land like a cloud when destruction 

closed her wiug 
O'er their thin host and wounded king. 

At last in the fading twilight of his life, he sees the light 
of a great and rapidly increasing prosperity beam on the 
section that he loved, and the last faithful follower of Cal- 
houn, the principal character in the grandest tragedy the 
world has ever witnessed, lies down to rest. 

Peace to his ashes ! He acted a great part, and he goes 
to his grave with clean hands and heart, carrying with him 
the affectionate remembrance of those from whose strony: 
hearts misfortune never drove out love, or altered faith. 



FEB 19 mQ\ 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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